Philadelphia Magnet

Hugh Henry Breckenridge, was an American painter and art instructor, who championed the artistic movements from impressionism to modernism. Breckenridge taught for more than forty years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, becoming the school's Dean of Instruction in 1934.

Breckenridge was born on October 6, 1870, in Leesburg, Virginia. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he met first met William Edmondson. In 1892, he traveled to Paris where he studied under Adolphe William Bouguereau. He travelled through Europe with his colleague Walter E. Schofield.

In 1894 when he returned to Philadelphia he began his career at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), where he would teach for more than forty years.

In 1919, he received the Gold Medal of Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art for 25 years of service and exemplary painting. 

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