Borie was born into a prosperous, socially prominent Philadelphia family. His French grandfather had fled the Santa Domingo insurrection with his Haitian wife, settling in Philadelphia in 1805. His father, Adolph Edward Borie, a financier and noted patron of the arts, was appointed secretary of the navy by President Grant in 1869. "In every sense" Borie "was an aristocrat, in looks, in manners, grooming and social background" [Biddle].
After graduating from the Lawrenceville (New Jersey) School, in 1895, Borie attended the University of Pennsylvania for one year, but left to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under William Merritt Chase and Thomas Anshutz from 1896 to 1899. For the next three years Borie was enrolled in the Royal Academy in Munich as a student of Carl Marr. He made occassional trips to Paris and Vienna during this period.
Three years after Borie's return to Philadelphia in 1902, his family's bank failed. The year following his marriage in 1907, was spent in Paris, where Borie studied the Impressionists. From 1908 to 1915, Borie lived in his native city, making summer trips to Italy, 1910; Scotland, 1911; Wyoming, 1912, where his stay extended to November.
Borie relocated to New York in 1915, where he remained for four years, summering in Ogunquit, Maine. His submission to the Academy annual of 1917 received the Maynard prize, and probably was the principle encouragement to his election that year. During World War I he applied his talents to designing camoflage for ships. Following the war he returned to Philadelphia which remained his home for the remainder of his life, excepting the years 1921-24, when he again lived in Paris. An avid traveler, Borie's summer trips including Portugal and Spain in 1926, Germany and Paris in 1929, Italy, Paris and Ireland in 1931, and Mexico in 1933.
A well-known figure in the art world, Borie's circle included as diverse figures as Mary Cassatt, Frederick Frieseke, Thomas Eakins, George Luks, Rockwell Kent and Charles Demuth.
