A modernist painter, Breckenridge lived most of his life in Philadelphia, studying and teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Breckenridge attended the Academy from 1887 to 1892, and then he traveled to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian with William Adolphe Bouguereau. He traveled through Europe with Walter Elmer Schofield, a friend from the Pennsylvania Academy. Breckenridge adopted the bright palette and loose brushwork associated with impressionism. A second trip to Europe with Schofield in 1909 introduced him to the work of the European avant-garde, and he began to paint abstract pictures with intense color. Breckenridge began teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1894 and he continued there for more than 40 years. He also opened a summer school in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
