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Presenting… Shirley Purdie’s Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

The National Portrait Gallery this week launches an online exhibition of Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe to coincide with Reconciliation Week.

Leigh Bowery, 1984

Gift of Claudia Hyles, Dr Christiane Lawin-Bruessel, Gwenda Matthews, Gael Newton, Anne O'Hehir, Susan Smith and Dominic Thomas in memory of our friend, Robyn Beeche 2016

The 1890s to the 1940s

Although the tough, weathered, hard-drinking bushmen of the kind mythologised by writers like Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson are popularly associated with the character of late nineteenth century Australia, it was also a time when alternative ideas about identity began to come into play.

Matthew Burnett, c. 1865

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

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.

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.

Friends and Acquaintances

Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.

Little treasures

The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.

William Francis King, 'The Flying Pieman', c. 1869

Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2010

Robert O'Hara Burke, c. 1860

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Little women

Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.

The Tichborne Claimant (Arthur Orton), c. 1872

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Two pair

Hattie Shepparde, 1872

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Philanthropic donations enable otherwise unobtainable acquisition

A magnanimous portrait of Helena Rubinstein has been acquired for the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.