portrait painter, worked in Melbourne from the early 1850s. He showed Portrait of Corry Fowler, Esq. and Portrait of James Fowler, Esq. at the 1853 Victorian Fine Arts Society’s exhibition, his address being given as Wellington Street, Collingwood. Portrait of a Gentleman , attributed to 'J.C. Brennan’ in the catalogue, was presumably also his. Nicholas Brennan sent an untitled oil portrait to the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition, by which time he had moved to Brunswick Street, Collingwood. He contributed three 'pastelles’ to the first exhibition of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts in 1857 and sent both oil and pastel portraits to the annual exhibitions in 1860-64. Most were ignored by the reviewers, but the Examiner 's critic in 1861 stated: 'Mr Brennan’s two pictures are far from deficient in a certain pleasing expression and the flesh coloring is agreeable, though somewhat too glowing. They are notably deficient, however, in the working up. The shadows are heavy, and lack transparency, and the drapery is a lamentable failure’. Brennan was then living in Bronte Villa, Nelson Road, South Yarra. He was at Hoddle Street, Richmond, by 1864.
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- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
