Born in 1898 in Odessa, Russia, (now Ukraine). He immigrated to the United States as a child in 1908.Brackman studied at the National Academy of Design from 1919 to 1921, and the Ferrer School in San Francisco. From 1931, he had a long career teaching at the Art Students League of New York where he was a life member. He also taught at the American Art School in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum School, the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, and the Madison Art School in Connecticut. In 1932, Brackman was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1940.He painted portraits of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Charles Lindbergh, and John Foster Dulles, the Duponts and Helen Morgan, as well as portraits commissioned by the United States Air Force Academy and the State Department. He painted a portrait of actress Jennifer Jones for use as a prop in the 1948 film "Portrait of Jennie", where it represents a portrait painted by the character of Eben Adams (Joseph Cotten), a figure and portrait painter. His work characteristically combined still lifes with portraiture. He was very conservative in his opinions about art and disdained abstraction, warning his students that “it is for the dilettante and good conversationalist, and not for a student who wishes to become a professional artist.”