Breck left Giverny (where he was one of the first Americans to visit) and traveled briefly to Boston in 1890, where he became one of the first Americans to disseminate Impressionist ideas through his exhibition at the St. Botolph Club. Breck resumed residence in America in 1892, and during the ensuing years, had a solo showing at the Chase Gallery and a second one at the St. Botolph Club. He also exhibited in New York at the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design. He died prematurely, the victim of an accident, and in 1899 a memorial exhibition of his work was held at the St. Botolph Club. A similar (but not identical) exhibition was mounted at the National Arts Club in New York. In late 1896 and early 1897, Breck visited Venice, where he produced many small oil sketches and several large finished canvases. Many of these works were included in the memorial exhibitions of Breck's work, and it is likely that Giudecca Canal, Venice appeared in these showings under a different title. Reviewing the Boston memorial exhibition, a critic remarked favorably upon the artist's Venetian subjects:

In the Venetian pictures, the tender appreciation of the man for subtle phases is most marked...[looking at] the Venetian studies full of light and color, mist and nature unconsciously brought out his subtler work, and his happiest efforts have been in rendering some transient effect [that] ring through the memory like minor music. [The Venice paintings] were the last phases of his fast developing artistic vision. He had just found himself when death took him.*

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* W.L. Bumpus, "John Breck's Paintings-His Unconscious Rendering of the Beauty About Him," Boston Herald, May 17, 1899, p. 6