Brenan, James (1837–1907), painter and educationalist, was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Brenan. After studying art at the RDS school of design (then in Leinster House) and at the school of the RHA, he travelled to London, where he worked as a decorative artist assisting Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt and Owen Jones (noted for his influential theories on design) in the decoration of the Pompeiian and Roman courts in the Crystal Palace built for the Great Exhibition of 1851. During the early 1850s he taught at the RDS school. From 1855 to 1860 Brenan pursued his studies as an art teacher in England. Initially he was admitted to the Art Teacher Training School, then based at Marlborough House, London, an opportunity afforded to the more promising students of the society's school at this period. After a short time spent as an assistant at the Birmingham school of art, he returned to the training school, which by then had moved to South Kensington. There his outlook as an educationalist was formed, based on the ideal that the promotion of good design for industry could be a force for improvement within society as a whole. Before returning to Ireland he taught for short periods at Liverpool, Taunton, and Yarmouth. In 1860 Brenan was appointed headmaster of the Cork School of Art, a post he held until 1889. He was a member of the committee for the Cork exhibition of 1883, where he was responsible for the fine-arts section.
A figure of key importance for the development of art and craft education in late nineteenth-century Ireland, Brenan had as his chief and lifelong concern the promotion of the applied arts and the provision of training in art and craft so as to improve standards of manufacture in industry. To this end he started lace-making classes in convents in Munster to aid rural industry in the face of competition from industrially produced goods. His activities in this area formed an important contribution to the development of the lace industry in Ireland.
In 1889 he was appointed headmaster of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. His aims were not alone the fostering of the study of the fine arts, but also the training of artisans working in trades such as metalwork and textiles. He played an important role in the expansion of the school at this period chiefly through the introduction of classes in craft, the most successful being the lace and embroidery class. In 1894 he visited art schools in Hamburg, Stockholm, Berlin, and Vienna to gain a wider understanding of art education outside Ireland. He retired as headmaster in April 1904.
From 1861 to 1906 Brenan exhibited regularly at the RHA. His experience of rural communities in Munster provided inspiration for many of these works, such as ‘Committee of inspection’ and ‘Letter from America’, both in the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork. In 1876 he was made an associate member of the RHA and a full member two years later. He also exhibited in England: at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, and the Royal Society of Artists. He was elected a member of the RIA 24 June 1889. He died 7 August 1907 in Dublin.