Govs Graduate Makes Quite an Impression

We recently discovered that John Leslie Breck grew up in the Boston area and, in fact, attended Governor's during the years 1868 and 1869. He was recognized in his day as the first American impressionist.

According to the academy’s records, Breck resided in Newton Lower Falls, a village of Newton, Massachusetts, through at least 1871. He would subsequently study in Munich, Germany, and in 1886, at the Academie Julian in Paris, France (1886). Later Breck would become one of the few Americans to enter the inner circle of Claude Monet.

Read more at the Governor's Archives blog and the City of Newton website!