Artist Mel Leipzig, the ‘Chekhov of Trenton’, Has Died at 90

Melvin Donald “Mel” Leipzig, a painter who guided generations of artists from his adopted home of Trenton, New Jersey, died on November 1 at the age 90. According to his daughter, Francesca Leipzig, he died exactly 18 years after the passing of his wife, the artist Mary Jo Michelessi.Across more than half a century, the Brooklyn-born artist portrayed the people and places he encountered—no matter how mundane—with gravitas. He never painted from photographs, preferrin