© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
James Robert M. Robertson
Biography
James Robert M. Robertson (1844-1932), mining engineer and coal magnate, was the son of a Scottish surgeon and colliery owner, and qualified in medicine himself before opting for a career in mining.
1 portrait in the collection
James Robert Millar Robertson, 1926
W.A. Bowring
Portrait, oil on canvas
Gift of the descendants of James Robert Millar Robertson 2011
Album of cartes de visite and cabinet cards compiled by William St Leonards Robertson, 1860s-c. 1900
Various
Portrait, 24 page brown leather bound album of 119 cartes de visite and 16 cabinet card photographs
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Brothers on farms
Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011
Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.
Martha Mary Robertson with her child William St Leonards Robertson, c. 1865
an unknown artist
Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured
Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
![William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]](/files/5/3/6/1/i12225-sl.jpg "William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]")
![William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]](/files/5/3/6/1/i12225-ths.jpg "William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]")
William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida], 1860s-1870s
Various
Portrait, eight carte de visites, hand coloured, contained in a red leather presentation case
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Elegance in exile
Portrait drawings from colonial Australia
Previous exhibition, 2012
Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863
William Edward Kilburn
Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The Catholic Hierarchy of Australia, 1869
Archibald McDonald, Henry Samuel Sadd
Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
James, Rebecca and Sam Mapu, 2021
James Tylor, Craig Tuffin, Dr Elisa deCourcy
Portrait, 1/4 plate daguerreotype in a leather case lined with Nantu Watpa Grey Kangaroo fur
Purchased 2022
Jessie Robertson
Biography
Jessie Robertson (1835–1849) was the eldest of the seven children of pastoralist and businessman, William Robertson (1798–1874), and his wife Margaret (née Whyte, 1811–1866).
1 portrait in the collection
Margaret Robertson
Biography
Margaret Robertson (née Whyte, 1811–1866) was the daughter of settlers George and Jessie Whyte, who emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land from Scotland in 1832.
4 portraits in the collection
William Robertson
Biography
William Robertson (1798-1874), pastoralist and entrepreneur, was a key player in the settlement of Victoria in the 1830s.
3 portraits in the collection
Bill Robertson CBE MC
Biography
Bill Robertson CBE MC (1917-2011), public servant, was educated at Melbourne Grammar and Oxford, where he graduated from the school of Natural Philosophy in 1939.
1 portrait in the collection
Geoffrey R. Robertson AO KC
Biography
Geoffrey Roland Robertson AO KC (b. 1946), barrister, academic and defender of human rights, grew up in Sydney, attending Epping Boys' High and then the University of Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Ron Robertson-Swann OAM
Biography
Ron Robertson-Swann (b. 1941), sculptor, teacher and painter, studied at the National Art School (NAS) under Lyndon Dadswell in the late 1950s.
1 portrait in the collection