Morven Museum & Garden announce Coastal Impressions: Painters of the Jersey Shore, 1880-1940

Morven Museum & Garden present Coastal Impressions: Painters of the Jersey Shore, 1880-1940 an exhibition on view April 26 – September 29, 2013.

This exhibition seeks to examine how the New Jersey shore was home to artist colonies whose output rivaled that of the better-known colonies of Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Connecticut and Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Borrowing heavily from the collection of Roy Pedersen, the leading collector and historian of these New Jersey artists, the exhibition will feature the works of Edward Boulton, Wyatt Eaton, Albert Reinhart, Julius Golz, Charles Freeman, John F. Peto, Thomas Anshutz, Hugh Campbell, and Carrie Sanborn – to name a few. These artists lived in shore communities between 1880 and 1940 where they produced works of considerable achievement. This exhibition aims to recognize these artists for their contribution to the cultural heritage of New Jersey and more broadly to American Art.

By exploring the varied and connecting paths of these American artists who were drawn to the light and water of New Jersey, this exhibition will demonstrate the comparatively small size of the American art community in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Edward Boulton, for example, studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy and then became his neighbor in Point Pleasant, New Jersey along the Manasquan River. Wyatt Eaton, who frequently visited his friend Carrie Sanborn in Point Pleasant Beach, brought with him years of study with James Whistler, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Jean-François Millet. Eaton’s closest friend, Will Hicok Low, who also studied under Gérôme and spent summers in Barbizon, worked around the Manasquan River and brought others with him – including Robert Louis Stevenson – in 1888. Collectively these artists showed their work at the most competitive venues including the Paris Salon, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Paris Exposition, the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Society of Independent Artists.

Morven Museum & Garden is a museum and public garden located in Princeton New Jersey. A National Historic Landmark, Morven was the home to Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the former Governor’s mansion of New Jersey. Public Hours: Wed.-Fri 11-3; Sat. & Sun. 12-4. www.morven.org