Take a 30 minute tour of the Portrait Gallery exploring the collection and the building.

Australian portraiture of the mid-twentieth century was rich with the influence of European modernism, exemplified by the work of artists including Arthur Boyd, Judy Cassab and Clifton Pugh.

Spanning the 1880s to the 1930s, this collection display celebrates the innovations in art – and life – introduced by the generation of Australians who travelled to London and Paris for experience and inspiration in the decades either side of 1900.

In partnership with Big hART we are proud to present Gulgawarnigu - Thinking of something, someone, a national presentation of digital artworks created from Ngarluma country leramagadu (Roebourne), in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

After you have booked your paid exhibition ticket, join us in the Gallery for a 30-minute tour of the National Photographic Portrait Prize to hear more about the artists’ vision and stories of their subjects.

We all have places where we feel at ease, a sense of belonging, of ownership, of relaxation, of self. Given the opportunity, portraitists love to place their sitters in an environment where they are most at home.

Encompassing works created over the past 80 years, this selection of portraits from the Gallery’s collection celebrates inventiveness and diversity in approaches to self portraiture.

The selection of works in Frocked up richly demonstrates the interconnectedness of costume and portraiture – and the many ways in which artists have employed the representation of dress to powerful, insightful effect.

This sample of 56 photographs takes in some of the smallest photographs we own and some of the largest, some of the earliest and some of the most recent, as well as multiple photographic processes from daguerreotypes to digital media.

Shake off that frosty winter, dodge the magpies, and get creative with us this spring! Drop-in any time with family and friends for free craft activities.

Our National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 series ends with Brenda L Croft in conversation with our Learning Manager, Krysia Kitch.

Do we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.

Bree Pickering, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, invites you to an afternoon presentation of new acquisitions from the past year.

Do we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.

Do we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.

Come on an animal adventure these school holidays and meet some furry friends, cool critters and pet portraits. We’ll be looking, chatting and creating our way through the Gallery, and please, don’t feed the animals!

Dig out your Woman’s Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook, sit down with an after-dinner mint and enjoy this week’s tour.

Celebrate difference and diversity by listening to a reading of The Chalk Rainbow by Deborah Kelly and Gwynneth Jones. After hearing this story about Zane who has Autism, you’ll have the chance to make a colourful creative response.