Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

William Robinson, 2016 by Mark Mohell

William Robinson

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Unique in the world, perhaps, is a bronze sculpture that fuses the age-old human portrait bronze tradition, and the later genre of the bronze pug figurine: that’d be William Robinson’s Self-portrait with pug.

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson

A charming prospect

Nearest & Dearest

Family fortunes

William Bligh

Image downloads

William Bligh
Welcome home, Captain Bligh

Hi-resolution images for media representatives, password required.

National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP)

NPPP portrait prize
Exhibitions

The National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP) 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.

Louise Sauvage

Australia: Sport and Identity

Google Arts and Culture
Learning resources

Australians love their sport. We find many of our heroes and shared values on the sporting field – notions of being a good sport, having dignity in defeat, being socially inclusive and playing fair. For anyone with an interest in sport.

Kate

Kate

Who are you?

The two portraits that I've chosen to compare and contrast and to bring together a self portrait by John Brack in 1955, and William Yang, Self Portrait #2.

William Nuttall with horses in field, 2023 Noel McKenna

Winner announcements

National Photographic Portrait Prize and Darling Portrait Prize
Prizes and awards

Noel McKenna has won the 2024 Darling Portrait Prize and Amos Gebhardt has won the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024.

William Bligh

Welcome home, Captain Bligh

27 March 2015
Archived media releases 2015

The National Portrait Gallery will, next Tuesday, unveil an exciting new acquisition of irrefutable importance to all Australians. Portrait of William Bligh, in master’s uniform c. 1776, attributed to John Webber, is one of the earliest portraits of the contentious, historical figure, and extends the Gallery’s remarkable collection of early colonial portraits.

Graham Sylvester's crowd, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, 1983 William Yang

From riot to revelry

Nearest & Dearest

Pride, protest, panache

Curator, Joanna Gilmour with donors Peronelle and Jim Windeyer.

Research and biography

Opportunities for support

Research and biography which reveal extraordinary stories of achievement in Australia through thoughtful dialogue about national identity, character and accomplishment.

Self portrait with scarf

Shadows cast on fairy tale scene

Lust

Bunny’s side-honey 

Fragility, 2024 Naomi Hobson

National Photographic Portrait Prize

Prizes and awards

The NPPP is an annual prize for Australian photographers. The year’s most outstanding photographic portrait is awarded a $30,000 cash prize and photographic equipment valued at $20,000 courtesy of our Imaging Partner, Canon Australia. Entries for 2025 are open.

Richard Tognetti #1510

Richard Tognetti #1510, 2018

by Louise Hearman
General content

Commissioned with funds provided by Peter Weiss AO 2018

Angus Trumble and David Hansen

National Portrait Gallery Director's tenure ends in triumph

30 November 2018
Archived media releases 2018

National Portrait Gallery Director Angus Trumble is ending his five-year tenure with a flourish, after announcing that Gallery publication Dempsey’s People: A Folio of British Street Portraits 1824-1844 has been awarded the 2018 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History.

Tony Shaw

Tony Shaw, 2018

by Sarah Rhodes
General content

Commissioned with funds from the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series 2018

The Lambert

The Lambert

Beards

Barbering manuals of the turn of the century might describe this style as a ‘Van Dyck’, named after the Dutch painter Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) who is known to have adopted this look.

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency