Regina Seiden predominately painted portraits of women who, though constrained by expected societal roles, exhibit a sense of grace and individual character. Seiden was born in Rigaud, Quebec in 1897. After moving to Montreal, she attended the Académie Marie-Rose, a private French Catholic preparatory school for women, and later studied at the Art Association of Montreal under William Brymner, Edmond Dyonnet and Maurice Cullen. There were few professional women artists in Canada at the time, but Brymner encouraged his female students to to pursue artistic careers, and they looked to each other for inspiration. This led them to organize group critiques and exhibitions, and to form the Beaver Hall Group, and Seiden participated in two of their annual exhibitions in 1921 and 1922.

After completing her education, which included a year of training in Paris at the Académie Julian, she returned to Montreal in 1922. Seiden was a skilled painter, and her naturalistic approach suited her subject matter of women in everyday settings. Throughout her career she experimented with different styles and techniques. In Dora, the circa 1923 work in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, she painted the poet Theodora Gidlow in patchy colours within a flat space, while focusing on the subtle pose and facial expression of her subject. It is subtlety that is striking about her work - her subjects are never presented as victims, yet neither are they shown in some transgressive, heroic position - they are always in the middle of a struggle with their context, with their societal role or expectations.

In 1928 Seiden married artist Eric Goldberg, and they spent time in Palestine and Paris, both working together in studios. However, she soon reverted to a domestic role and stopped painting, with her last show taking place in 1930. Seiden assisted Goldberg in his teaching at the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in Westmount, and handled the administrative work from 1949 to 1969. Her work was rediscovered in the 1970s, when feminist art historians began writing about overlooked female artists.

Seiden’s work was included in the National Gallery’s Special Exhibition of Canadian Art in 1926. Her work was shown in several important international exhibitions, including the Canadian section of Fine Arts at the British Empire Exhibition in London (1924) and the Exposition d’art canadien at the Musée de Paume in Paris (1927).