Irma Seitz,

1963

Neel created psychologically charged portraits of friends, family, and associates in the art world. Her portraits of husband-and-wife William and Irma Seitz represent figures who mark two formative moments for contemporary art at Princeton University. The first came in 1955, when William received the University’s first PhD in modern art for his dissertation on Abstract Expressionism. With a teaching position at Princeton followed by a curatorial position at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Seitz was inducted into the art world coterie that Neel frequently painted. The second moment occurred in 1974 when, upon William’s death, Irma, along with many artists and collectors—including Neel’s children—donated artworks to the Princeton University Art Museum in memory of her husband, gifts that helped to catalyze the Museum’s collection of contemporary art.