Hugh Breckenridge’s artistic training began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1887. The academic precision and attention to detail that mark his portraits and still lifes reflect the Academy’s emphasis on drawing, close observation, and accuracy. Like his peers Robert Henri, Edward Redfield, and Walter Schofield, Breckenridge was affected by the legacy of Thomas Eakins and the artistic philosophy he espoused. However, the year he spent in Europe (1892), made possible by PAFA’s Cresson Travel Scholarship, deeply affected the direction Breckenridge's art would ultimately take. His interest in impressionist technique and great love of color first took shape during this initial visit abroad. A later trip in 1909 would further spark his attraction to the avant-garde and modernist painting.

Over the course of his career, Breckenridge developed two styles: realist portraits and still lifes, which helped him earn a living, and his personal work, which started as impressionist but eventually evolved into expressive abstractions, when his engagement with Modernism reached its peak. In both bodies of work, Breckenridge’s command of technique is apparent. Even his most abstract late paintings demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the discrete elements that comprise a great composition.