As a painter, Hans Bren primarily created landscapes and figure paintings with strong colors, and after 1945 also abstractions. Furthermore, numerous pen drawings and woodcuts in an enigmatic, bizarre style have survived. From 1922 to 1926, Bren studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts with F. Cizek, V. Schufinsky, A. Böhm, E. Mallina and B. Löffler. He then worked as an official in the Vienna city administration, more precisely in the city treasury. Bren was represented in the Hagenbund for the first time in 1925 and was a member from 1929 to 1938. After 1947 he rarely exhibited and created illustrations for magazines and newspapers. In 2001, there was a solo exhibition in the Anton Hanak Museum in Langenzersdorf; in 2002, he had a solo exhibition in the Vienna-Penzing District Museum. Hans Bren was awarded the Eitelberger Prize from the Vienna School of Applied Arts.