Brittan specialized in bird and animal subjects. From this artist, only works on paper are known, the most famous being The Antler'd Monarch of the Waste which was exhibited at Suffolk Street in 1858. During this period the artist resided in Truro in Cornwall.

He was the father and teacher of Charles Edward BRITTAN (Jnr) (born Plymouth 1870), who specialized in landscapes. Brittan Snr began exhibiting in the mid-1850s with the Royal Polytechnic Society in Falmouth, and won a number of medals and citations for unnamed works.  Later he was to become one of the judges of the Annual Exhibitions in Falmouth, which indicates that he probably continued to live locally, or perhaps in Plymouth, Devon where his son was born.