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Power suits

Celebrate the fashion icon in a playful display of more than 100 collection works and select loans. Meet significant Australians in their finest from Johnny O’Keefe, Sherbet and Nicole Kidman to influential judges, politicians, entrepreneurs and scientists.

Rose Byrne, 2001 (printed 2004)

Purchased 2005

Nicole Kidman, 2002 (printed 2004)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Nicole Kidman, c. 1980

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Heroine knits

‘Dear Kate Just – I’m your feminist fan’. Interview by Sophia Cai.

Henry Wade

Henry Wade (1810–1854), surveyor, was trained in surveying at Dublin College before being employed as a civilian assistant by the Royal Engineers Corps.

1 portrait in the collection

Nicole Kidman AC

Nicole Kidman (b. 1967), actor, began her film career as a teenager in the Australian ventures Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits (1983).

3 portraits in the collection

Maurice Felton

Maurice Appleby Felton (1803-1842) arrived in Sydney with his wife and four children in late 1839 as surgeon to the immigrant ship the Royal Admiral.

3 portraits in the collection

Conflicting images

Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.

Star signs

Barry York charts the course from childhood request to autographed celebrity portrait anthology.

In a good paddock

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

Fiona McMonagle

Fiona aims to create a dangerous situation with a flood of water on the paper, forcing each work to the point where it can fail, and then rescuing it. 

The Vanity model

Vanity Fair Editor David Friend describes how the rebirth of the magazine sated our desire for access into the lives of celebrities and set the standard for the new era of portrait photography.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

Collection: Icons

The second instalment of a display featuring bold contemporary portraits drawn from the collection. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

Lewis Morley

Lewis Morley has a great eye for a shot and a sharp ear for a pun