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Ryan Presley

April Phillips (Wiradjuri-Scottish, kalari/galari) yarns with Marri Ngarr artist Ryan Presley about portraiture, resilience and the spirit held within fire.

When birds no longer sing

Emma Kindred looks at the career of Joan Ross, whose work subverts colonial imagery and its legacy with the clash of fluorescent yellow.

Julie Rrap

Feminism, risktaking and the politics of looking: Joanna Gilmour steps into the world of Julie Rrap.

Public Transport

Transport Canberra bus routes run from the various city centres past the Gallery on a regular basis.

Darling Portrait Prize 2024

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.

School portraits

Inga Walton sheds light on a portraiture collection usually only seen by students and teachers at Melbourne University.

Miriam Vale Merlo Coffee Shop

Self portrait on washcloth

Maza family

Kate Beynon’s transcultural life and art

Phoebe Lupton profiles artist Kate Beynon, whose contemplative self portrait features in Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize.

Human encounters

Joanna Gilmour takes us behind the scenes of some of Ralph Heimans’ best-known portraits of royalty, heads of state and cultural icons.

The art of dress

Emma Kindred examines fashion as a representation of self and social ritual in 19th-century portraiture.

Time and light

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.

Illuminating history

Joanna Gilmour reflects on 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.

Our achievements to date

During the period 2018–20, the Gallery implemented our first Access Action Plan.

Where we fit: social policy context

There are a wide range of legislative requirements and strategies which have influenced the development of this DIAP.

Definitions

Access is about creating the necessary conditions for all individuals and organisations to use services, facilities, programs and employment opportunities.

Padma Menon

See through me

Penelope Grist and Rebecca Ray talk to the artists in Portrait23: Identity about transcending modes of portraiture.

Hard truths

Jennifer Higgie reveals how Alice Neel reinvigorated 20th century portraiture with her honest and perceptive depictions of the human experience.

You, looking at me

Elspeth Pitt chats with Archibald Prize-winning artist Yvette Coppersmith about performance, coincidences and the intersection of art and life.

Paper weight

Joanna Gilmour delves into a collection display that celebrates the immediacy and potency of drawing as an art form in its own right.

Everything, everyqueer, all at once

Bradley Vincent considers Samuel Hodge’s use of the archive to create a queer vernacular of portraiture.

Past directors

Directors of the National Portrait Gallery from 1998 to today.

Wicked but Virtuous

Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.

Icons and Identities

It’s often thought that foremost among portraiture’s many functions is the documentation of individuals who are celebrated and familiar, or who best exemplify the temper and identity of a certain place at a certain time.

Inner Worlds, Outer Selves

Within a person’s psyche live memories, dreams, instincts, fears and fantasies. On the outside, although our identities may appear far less complicated, we are able to choose which parts of ourselves we wish to project.

You are who?

Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.

Love my way

Inga Walton delves into the bohemian group of artists and writers who used each other as muses and transformed British culture.

Women make history

Jennifer Higgie uncovers the intriguing stories behind portraits of women by women in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.

Unboxed

Sandra Bruce explores a new acquisition that has within it a story of interconnectivities in the Australian art world.

Space in between

Rebecca Ray goes backstage with Bangarra’s Head of Design and photographer Jacob Nash.

Rosalie Kunoth, 1967

Gift of Audrey Cameron in memory of the artist Donald Cameron 2022

Aussie Icon: Portrait of Jenny Kee, 2022

Purchased 2022

Alex Miller, novelist, 2022

Gift of the artist 2022

John Tsiavis

Recorded 2018

Splendid, many-splendoured

Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.

Birds of a feather

Charting a path from cockatiel to finch, Annette Twyman explores her family portraits and stories.

Harriet Schwarzrock: spaces between movement and stillness

To celebrate the new exhibition Australian Love Stories, renowned Australian glass artist Harriet Schwarzrock has been commissioned to make a large-scale installation reflecting on the role the heart plays as our emotional centre.

Chris Hemsworth, 2016 (printed 2021)

Gift of the artist 2021

Reading the map

Richard Walsh, Editor OZ magazine at the Hunter Street offices, c. 1966 (printed 2021)

Purchased with funds provided by Tim Bednall 2021

Emma Hamilton

Lovely Lillie and Dirty Bertie

Royal romps: illicit liaisons

Staying home

Joanna Gilmour brings a mindful Douglas Mawson’s perspective to bear on the concept of isolation.

Playing by their own rules

Joined at the hip

Giving a dam

Ensconced and meditative in crisp Tasmania, Joanna Gilmour pays tribute to passionate green advocate and photographer Olegas Truchanas.

Of plague and portraits

Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.

The Amazing Face: a 14-day Dive into Portraiture

The National Portrait Gallery is offering a free online class on the art of portraiture from April 28.

The eye and the heart

Nici Cumpston immerses herself in the collective vision of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020.

Love in the extreme

Joanna Gilmour reveals love’s more intense manifestations in the tale of Lord Kenelm and Venetia Digby.

Activating the space

Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.

Mother’s muse

Inga Walton traces the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, revealed in the NGV’s summer retrospective.

The elegant thinker

Sarah Engledow pens a fond farewell to acclaimed science historian Ann Moyal.

Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt as Marguerite Gautier in 'La Dame aux Camélias', 1891

Purchased 2020

Walala Tjapaltjarri, 2009

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2020. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Some prime ministers

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.

Primed

Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.

Icons

When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

Little women

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

Expect the unexpected

Joanna Gilmour revels in accidental artist Charles Rodius’ nineteenth century renderings of Indigenous peoples.

The art of multiplicity

Meredith Hughes explores a key Portrait Gallery work, emerging into the infinite iterations of identity.

2017-19 Acquisition Fund

From 2017 to 2019 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on the commission of a stunning portrait of Rosie Batty by Nikki Toole.

Petal to the mettle

Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.

Queen of cartes

Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.

Update on Temporary Closure of the National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery will close its doors from Tuesday 23 April 2019, but the public are still able to experience the home of portraiture during the four-month closure.

Textiles Scientist Voted the People’s Favourite

The black and white portrait of an elderly woman with sidelong glance and irreverent, contemplative smile has taken out the people’s choice award in this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Jeanne Pratt at home, 2015

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Alana Landsberry and Bauer Media Australia 2019

James Macarthur, c. 1836-1838

Purchased 2019

Thomas and John Clarke, bushrangers, photographed in Braidwood Gaol, 1867

Purchased 2019

George Spartels, early 1970s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2019

Charles Perkins, 1974

Gift of HOTA (Home of the Arts), Gold Coast 2019 with the encouragement of Patrick Corrigan AM

The Delltones, 1964 (printed 2019)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019

Christmas Island

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

Carte-o-mania!

Drawn from the NPG’s burgeoning collection of cartes de visite, Carte-o-mania! celebrates the wit, style and substance of the pocket-sized portraits that were taken and collected like crazy in post-goldrush Australia.

Three ways to look at a photograph

Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2019 Prize.

Gail Kelly, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Westpac Group and Optus 2018

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Anna Meares, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by King & Wood Mallesons 2018

Catherine Livingstone, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2018

Tim Fairfax, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018

Study in scarlet

Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.

Material culture

The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.

The Writer: Peter Goldsworthy, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AO and Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018.

The cost of living luxuriously

In 1904, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia purchased as a gift for her sister, Queen Alexandra, a fan composed of two-color gold, guilloché enamel, mother-of-pearl, blond tortoiseshell, gold sequins, silk, cabochon rubies, and rose diamonds from the House of Fabergé in Saint Petersburg.

So Fine

This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.

So Fine

Ten women artists explore the possibilities of portraiture as a contemporary art form; and reinterpret and reimagine Australian history in the Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history.

Fiona McMonagle

Born: 1977, Letterkenny, Ireland
Works: Melbourne

Nicola Dickson

Born: 1959, Southport, QLD
Works: Canberra

Linde Ivimey

Born: 1965, Sydney
Works: Sydney

So Fine

The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce its winter exhibition is So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history. It will open to the public from 29 June 2018.

Presence and absence

The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.

The life of Bryant

Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.

Hope for kindness

Sarah Engledow arrives at the junction of fate and hope in Sarah Ball’s poignant Immigrants series.

The National Portrait Gallery's 20th Anniversary

Last month we marked the twentieth anniversary of the formal establishment of the National Portrait Gallery, the tenth of the opening of our signature building, and the fifth of our having become a statutory authority under Commonwealth legislation.

Collection: Icons

When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

The stately lotus

I spent much of my summer holiday at D’Omah, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta. Lotus and waterlilies sprout in extraordinary profusion in artful ponds amid palms and deep scarlet ginger flowers.

NPPP 2011 exhibition essay

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2011 Prize.

Woburn Sheepshearing, 1811

Purchased 2018

Gail Kelly, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Westpac Group and Optus 2018

Tan Le, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018

Anna Meares, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by King & Wood Mallesons 2018

Catherine Livingstone, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2018

Album of cartes de visite and cabinet cards compiled by William St Leonards Robertson, 1860s-c. 1900

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
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], 1860s-1870s

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

William Robertson, 1866

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

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.

Tas Bull, 1986 (printed 2018)

Purchased 2018

Hélène Kirsova, 1937

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Hélène Kirsova, 1938

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Patrick White and Manoly Lascaris, 1987

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Clara Crosbie, c. 1885

Gift of John McPhee 2018

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

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

Two gentlemen celebrating a birthday (Frank Watters and Geoffrey Legge), 1974

Gift of Frank Watters OAM 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The Witching Hour - Elena Kats-Chernin, 2017

Purchased with the assistance of funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2018

Leonard French, 1980s (printed 2018)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Queen Victoria, 1901

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Self portrait as Sarah Wisse, Transported, 1996

Gift of the Karmel family in memory of Lena and Peter Karmel 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Nocturnal animals

Joanna Gilmour explores the enticing urban shadows cast by artists Martin Lewis and Edward Hopper.

Hump days

Jessica Bolton navigates the parallel tracks documenting Robyn Davidson’s astonishing journey.

Heroine knits

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

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

At first glance, this small watercolour group portrait of her two sons and four daughters by Maria Caroline Brownrigg (d. 1880) may seem prosaic, even hesitant

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush

Some years ago my colleague Andrea Wolk Rager and I spent several days in the darkened basement of a Rothschild Bank, inspecting every one of the nearly 700 autochromes created immediately before World War I by the youthful Lionel de Rothschild.

Nicholas Harding

Nicholas Harding: 28 portraits features paintings of Robert Drewe, John Bell and Hugo Weaving alongside gorgeously coloured recent oil portraits, delicate gouaches and bold ink and charcoal drawings.

Queen Victoria

Last Sunday I had the privilege of appearing at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in conversation with Julia Baird. The subject of our session was Julia’s recent biography, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.

Demimonde liaisons

Jane Raffan feasts on modernity’s entrée in the Belle Époque theatre of the demimonde.

Progressive pictures

Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.

Northern exposure

Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.

Unknown drawer

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain

European painters always enjoyed a good deal of latitude in the representation of angels, those asexual, bodiless, celestial regiments of God, so long as they were young and beautiful.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize turns ten

It is now a little more than 178 years since the French Academy of Sciences was made aware of the invention of the daguerreotype process.

The more things change...

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.

Costantini's convictions

Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.

20 20

Sarah Engledow picks some favourites from a decade of the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

The mind's eye

Christopher Chapman takes a trip through the doors of perception, arriving at the junction of surrealism and psychoanalysis.

Jewelled nights

Anne Sanders celebrates the cinematic union of two pioneering australian women.

Great Scots

Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Unbuttoning uniforms

Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.

Sylvia Breamer, c. 1920

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Sylvia Breamer, c. 1917-1919

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Kate Fitzpatrick, 1978 (printed 2017)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Portrait of David Dridan, 1992

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Dridan OAM 2017

Gough Whitlam, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir John Gorton, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Joe Darling (image plate from The Empire's Cricketers. London: Fine Art Society), 1905

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist, c. 1870

Purchased 2017

Rosie Batty, 2017

Commissioned with funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2017

Showing character

Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.

Natural born stiller

Penelope Grist speaks to Robert McFarlane about shooting for the stars.

Adam’s Prize Apples

Pamela Gerrish Nunn explores New Zealand’s premium award for portraiture.

Political profiles

Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.

A bear of great substance

Just in time for Christmas, Angus reflects on the most special present he has ever received.

Crème Valaze

Helena Rubinstein (1872‒1965) was the first self-made millionairess of modern times, and created the first publicly-listed global cosmetics corporation. 

Nicholas Harding

Over the years the young Nicholas Harding got his hands on various mice and guinea pigs, but they served mainly to illustrate the concept of mortality. 

William Robinson

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.

Kristin Headlam

Basil grew into a speckled beauty – a long-legged leaper and an exceptionally vocal dog, with a great register of sounds, ascending in shock value from a whimper to a growl to a bark to a yelp that’s a violation of the ears.

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Curator, Sarah Engledow, introduces the artists and the animals in The Popular Pet Show.

The family scene

Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.

Provocative talks on Saturdays in September

Join The Saturday Paper’s chief political correspondent, Karen Middleton, for A Month of Saturdays – afternoon conversations bringing current affairs experts to the Gallery for engaging, real-time discussions about the topics that matter.

Shop Talk

Angus and the arbiters talk (photo) shop for the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Portrait dendrochronology

Angus's latest Trumbology is accompanied by the following caveat: 'This one is reeeeeeally geeky.'

The mystery of Enoch Arden

Tennyson's Enoch Arden was inspired by a story that Thomas Woolner passed on to him – but whose story and of whom?

Inditchenous beestes of New Olland

A remarkable undated drawing by Edward Lear (1812–88) blends natural history and whimsy.

Children of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2016

Senses, movement and imagination in portraits of children from the 2016 Prize. For Year 1 - 3 students.

Augustus serendipitous

The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825. 

Tribute

Stevie Wright (1947-2015), singer-songwriter, came to Australia from England at the age of nine.

Paper, boy

Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.

Bill and Ted's excellent portrait.

Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.

New Chief Patron for the National Portrait Gallery

Mrs Lucy Hughes Turnbull AO has accepted an invitation to become the new Chief Patron of the National Portrait Gallery. 

Not perspiring, but glowing.

Angus Trumble explores the creative manifestations of radiance.

The sensational denouement of the case

The 'Yarra Boot Trunk Tragedy' unfolded a week before Christmas 1898, when some neighbourhood boys noticed a wooden box floating in the river at Richmond. 

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior, c. 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Equation of a life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton, 2016

Commissioned with the assistance of funds provided by Janet Whiting AM, Philip Lukies and Antonia Syme 2016

John Mitchel with John Martin and Father John Kenyon [the three Johns], 1866

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

A Goldfields Member "The Dove of Ararat" [The Hon. William McLellan M.L.A], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

The Member of the Upper House "One of the Olden Time" [The Hon. John Alston Wallace M.L.C.], 1874

Purchased 2016

Opera [Mr William Saurin Lyster], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

A Collins Street Surgeon "Patients and Diamonds" [Dr Beaney F.R.C.S.], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

The Dissecting Room

Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture. 

The portrait writ large

Karen Vickery on Chang the Chinese giant in Australia.

Money for Myth

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

Lauded legacy

Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.

Sideshow Alley

Death masks, post-mortem drawings and other spooky and disquieting portraits... Come and see how portraits of infamous Australians were used in the 19th century.

The Waxworks

Waxworks were among the various types of entertainment venue to emerge in Australian cities in the mid-nineteenth century. 

Sideshow Alley: Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

Bushrangers, oddities, true crime and scandal come together in this modern day cabinet of curiosities.

A colourful story from Sideshow Alley

From infamous bushranger to oyster shop display, curator Jo Gilmour explores the life of George Melville.

The Bare story

Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be

Andrew Sayers AM FAHA

The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.

Sitter still

Jaynie Anderson reflects on her experience as sitter for Reshid Bey’s 1962 portrait.

Secure the shadow ere the substance fade

The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.

Alternative virtue

Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.

No small wonder

Joanna Gilmour describes how artist Sam Leach works on a small scale to grand effect.

A real Pratt

The death of a gentlewoman is shrouded in mystery, a well-liked governor finds love after sorrow, and two upright men become entangled in the historical record.

The silent partner

One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.

Goods and chattels

I have been reading systematically through the ads in the earliest issues of the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, such a rich vein of information about certain aspects of daily life in Regency Sydney.

Foundation Members

Chairman Sid Myer AM, Hayley Baillie, Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, Patrick Corrigan AM, Marilyn Darling AC, Tim Fairfax AC, Sam Meers AO, John Liangis, Dr Helen Nugent AC and Nigel Satterley AM.

The real Thea

Long after the portraitist became indifferent to her, and died, a beguiling portrait hung over its subject.

Pen power

Politics and personae in the portraiture of TextaQueen by Jane Raffan.

Uncommon Australians

This exhibition showcases portraits acquired through the generosity of the National Portrait Gallery’s Founding Patrons, L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC.

Uncommon Australians

Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.

Trumble's way

At the end of a summer break one is tempted to say that there is nothing much to report. Isn’t one restful holiday very much like another?

Edward Hargraves, c. 1884

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Sir Oswald Brierly, c. 1870

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Gamaliel Butler, c. 1810

Purchased 2015

Saide, R.Y.S. (Charles Gibson Millar), 1894

Purchased 2015

James T. Donovan, 1892

Purchased 2015

Alan Marshall, 1971

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barrie and Jenny Hadlow 2015

Painter John Brack with Professor Alex Mitchell and Sir Garfield Barwick, c. 1977

Gift of the Jozef Vissel 2015

Stan de Teliga, 1973

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Liibus family 2015

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, c. 1774

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Norman Hetherington OAM (and friends), 2008

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist, Kate Rae and Mosman Art Gallery with the encouragement of the Hetherington family 2015

Jan Senbergs, 2015

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015

Sam Jinks

Born in Bendigo, Victoria, Sam Jinks’ work can be found in various public collections that include the Kiran Nader Museum of Art, Dehli, India and the Museo Escultura Figurativa Internacional Contemporaenea (MEFIC), Portugal.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

One night in the spring of 1970 in an old house in Whale Beach, north of Sydney, John Witzig, Albe Falzon and David Elfick put together the first issue of Tracks, playing Neil Young’s album Harvest over and over again as they pasted up galleys of type.

Access

The National Portrait Gallery welcomes everyone. We have a variety of inclusive programs.

Visiting the gallery

Maps and public transport information for your visit.

History

How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be

Autumn in Canberra

In Persuasion (1818), a long walk on a fine autumn day affords Anne Elliot an opportunity to ruminate wistfully and at great length upon declining happiness, youth and hope.

Clem Hill (member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team), 1896

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014

Sarah Simpson, c. 1866

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014

The Australian Tom Thumb (John David Armstrong), c. 1880

Purchased 2014

Lord John Russell, 1844

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Ken Catchpole, 2014

Commissioned with funds provided by the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series 2014

Joe Darling (Joseph Darling, member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team), 1896

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014

Anne Levy, 2011

Gift of Anne Levy AO 2014

Pop poet

Dr Anne Sanders previews the works in the new focus exhibition Paul Kelly and The Portraits.

The shipwright's arms

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.

Observation point

Australian artist and Archibald Prize finalist, Wendy Sharpe reflects on the art of portraiture.

The 'I' in Indigenous art

Jane Raffan examines unique styles of Indigenous portraiture that challenge traditional Western concepts of the artform.

Louise Whelan

I met Kaloti Parmjit the day I took the photo. I first visited the Sikh temple in the suburb of Glenwood to take photos as part of a social documentary project I'm undertaking for the State Library of NSW.

NPPP 2013 learning resource

Exploring select works from the NPPP 2012. For secondary students.

Someone to watch over you

Carrie Kibbler looks at how portraiture fits into the Australian Artbank Collection.

Listomania

Sarah Engledow describes the fall-out once Brett Whiteley stuck Patrick White’s list of his loves and hates onto his great portrait of the writer.

Observation point

Tim Storrier describes the influences on the development of his artistic style.

Generous Janice

Dr Sarah Engledow puts four gifts to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection in context.

South-bound and down

Joanna Gilmour recounts the story of ill-fated sea voyages in the early stages of the Antipodean colony.

What price self?

Jane Raffan investigates auction sales of self portraits nationally and internationally.

Seeing stars

Joanna Gilmour explores photographic depictions of Aboriginal sportsmen including Lionel Rose, Dave Sands, Jerry Jerome and Douglas Nicholls.

John Connell, c. 1830

Gift of Eleanor Thornton 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Miss Elizabeth Roberts, 1830

Purchased 2013

Andrew Sayers, 2012

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Reverend Nathaniel Kinsman, c. 1880

Purchased 2013

Elizabeth Walford, c. 1873

Gift of the Estate of Leslie Walford AM 2013

William Walford, c. 1873

Gift of the Estate of Leslie Walford AM 2013

Dorothy, 1990 (printed 2013)

Purchased 2013

Bryan Brown, 2008

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne, 1839

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Tommy Tycho, 1986

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Vicky Tycho 2013

Mark hanging at the beach, 2006

Male Domains - The Pub #4, 2006

About Headspace

Both making and exploring art involve a form of thinking that opens the way to multiple systems of knowing and experiencing.

Chinese Art

A short overview of modern Chinese art from 1949 to the present.

The Darling

Beards were generally been out for British military men in the 1800s: civilians might have worn them as badges of masculinity, but in the army they were perhaps a bit too close to indiscipline for comfort.

The Gibb

The 1950s are popularly thought of as an uptight, conservative time when men were clean-cut, brylcreemed and clean-shaven.

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.

The 1850s to the 1880s

The restrained and cultivated facial hair fashions evident through the first decades of the 1800s were on the wane by the middle of the century, when hirsute faces became mainstream.

The 1780s to the 1840s

Eighteenth century men differed from those of the preceding centuries in their preference for beardlessness.

Inner Worlds and psychoanalysis

Inner Worlds evokes a broad view of psychology as a discipline. However, the specific interests of the practitioners whose portraits are included in the exhibition incorporate specialist areas including psychoanalysis.

The art of Inner Worlds

Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.

Agus Suwage

Born in 1959, Agus Suwage was educated in the creative hub of Central Java, Yogyakarta before moving west to study graphic design at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Tejal Shah

Born in 1979, Tejal Shah grew up in Chhattisgarh, central India, moving to Bombay in 1995.

Alwin Reamillo

Alwin Reamillo was born in Manila, Philippines in 1964. He studied painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, and began his career as a visual art teacher at the Philippine High School for the Arts.

Eko Nugroho

Born and raised in Yogyakarta, Eko Nugroho (b. 1977) entered the art scene at the height of Reformasi.

S Teddy D

S Teddy D was born in Padang, Sumatra in 1970, and studied painting at the Institut Seni Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Art) in Yogyakarta.

Samantha Harris, 2010

White Whiteley

Eleven works by Brett Whiteley, centred around his scintillating 'Patrick White at Centennial Park 1979-1980'.

David Low, 1917

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Robyn Archer, 1990

Gift of Robyn Archer AO 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Professor Penny Sackett, astronomer and physicist, 2011

Purchased 2012

Belinda Giblin, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012

Cardinal George Pell, 2007 (printed 2012)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Lord Viscount Sydney, c. 1790

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Bert Hinkler, 1930s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Alan Foulkes in memory of Mark Graham Cleghorn 2012

Gamaliel Butler, c. 1824

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Merv Shearman 2012

Donald Friend at Owl Creek, 1983

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lawrence Daws 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Observation point

Artist Kate Beynon reflects on the place of portraiture in her artistic career.

The numbers man

Dr. Sarah Engledow tells the story of Australia's first Federal statistician, Sir George Knibbs.

More cash than dash

Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.

Beyond the Self

This exhibition examines the representation of the self in current South and Southeast Asian art practice through the work of artists from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand

Observation point

Zhong Chen's paintings of boys on Chinese zodiac animals and kung fu images reflect his identity as a Chinese-Australian artist.

Sea legged frogs

Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.

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.

Less than six degrees of separation

Anne Sanders finds connections in Inner Worlds between Hungarian expatriates and the development of psychoanalysis in Australia.

Creature from the Black Platoon starring Gary Foley 2011, 2011

Purchased 2011

Noni Hazlehurst, 1977 (printed 2011)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

John Shirlow, c. 1937

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

No shirt, no service

Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.

Paths to portraiture

The life and art of Australian artist Jenny Sages is on display in the exhibition Paths to Portraiture.

Feel the music

Dr Christopher Chapman discusses the portrait of Australian composer Paul Grabowsky by photographer Martin Philbey.

Technical terminology

Michael Desmond introduces some of the ideas behind the exhibition Present Tense: An imagined grammar of portraiture in the digital age.

Fine and dandy

Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.

In the thick of it

Projecting the splendour of the empire, and the resolve of its subjects, the bust of William Birdwood keeps a stiff upper lip in the National Portrait Gallery.

Husbands and Wives

'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.

Private virtues public lives

Family affections are preserved in a fine selection of intimate portraits.

Australian of the Year

The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.

Album of cartes de visite and cabinet card photograph including a portrait of John Tebbutt, c. 1870s

Gift of Mike MacPhail 2010

Mickey Johnson, c. 1896

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Gloria Petyarre, 2005

Gift of the artist 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Reverend Daniel Draper, c. 1866

Purchased 2010

Mr and Mrs Case, 1864

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Gustavus Brooke, c. 1865

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Chang the Chinese giant in European dress with Chinese boy and three European men, one of whom is his manager, c. 1871

Purchased 2010

Chang the Chinese Giant with his wife Kin Foo and manager Edward Parlett, c. 1871

Purchased 2010

Lovingly observed

Sarah Engledow previews the beguiling summer exhibition, Idle hours.

Home and away

Sir William Dobell painted the portraits of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones and Sir Hudson Fysh, who did much to promote the image of Australia in this country and abroad.

Through blue eyes

Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.

Sure thing

Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie 1887 by Frederick Woodhouse Snr. is a portrait of James Scobie, well known jockey and eminent horse trainer.

About the exhibition

Chance encounter

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.

Thinking about architecture and portraiture

Dr Christopher Chapman describes the experimental exhibition Portraits + Architecture

Worth her salt

Jerrold Nathan's portrait of Jessie Street shows the elegant side of a many-faceted lady.

Heartfelt

The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.

The fat of the land

Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’. 

Being Cate

A moving portrait of Cate Blanchett unfolds as an inspired pairing of medium and subject.

Naked ambition

Joanna Gilmour dives into the life of Australian swimming legend Annette Kellerman.

Lucy Escott, c. 1861

Purchased 2009

R O'Hara Burke, c. 1861

Purchased 2009

William John Wills, c. 1861

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, c. 1870

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

Victor Trumper, 1905

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

Self portrait, 1971

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diana de Kessler 2009

My Favourite Australian

My Favourite Australian is a project developed in collaboration with ABC TV and the people of Australia.

Open Air

Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.

Everybody's heard about the bird

Two professionals; Australian surfer Layne Beachley and photographer Petrina Hicks, combine their strengths to achieve a remarkable portrait.

Tracks in the sand

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses Quentin Jones's photograph of Australian author Tim Winton.

Axe Me Biggie

Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont's Afghanistan project captures the human experience of a country in reconstruction.

Conflicting images

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

Portrait of Cate Blanchett, 2008

Commissioned with funds provided by Ian Darling 2008

Ted Dyson, Bill Dyson (with pipe) and Percy, c. 1899

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Layne Beachley, 2008

Commissioned 2008

Sir Hudson Fysh, 1950

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Australian War Memorial in association with the Fysh family 2008

Martha Kermode, c. 1840

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Robert Kermode, c. 1840

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Steven Heathcote, 2007

Gift of the artist 2008

Y-erran-gou-la-ga, published 1807

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Robert Emerson Curtis, 1943

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Werner Baer, 1947

Gift of Richard King 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The Merioola Group, 1940s

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Senator Bonner, 1990

Purchased with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2008

Tim Winton, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Adam Lindsay Gordon, 1890-1894

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Layne Beachley, 2008

Commissioned 2008

The activist A-list

Dr Sarah Engledow examines a number of figures in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery who were pioneers or substantial supporters of the seminal Australian environmental campaigns of the early 1970s and 1980s.

All there in black and white

The National Portrait Gallery acquired a beguiling silhouette group portrait by Samuel Metford, an English artist who spent periods of his working life in America.

Be bold

The name of Florence Broadhurst, one of Australia’s most significant wallpaper and textile designers, is now firmly cemented in the canon of Australian art and design.

Shifting pixels

In 2007 the National Portrait Gallery produced its first online exhibition featuring the animated self portraits created by some of Australia’s most innovative visual artists and animators.

Cannonical

Walter Lindrum, world-famous billiards player, was one of Australia's greatest sporting champions.

Painting writing

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Virtual lives

A brief introduction to the Weird, Wired World of Internet Portraiture.

Australia's Creative Diaspora

Paris based Australian photographer and filmmaker Nathalie Latham has an ongoing interest in the creative achievements of other Australian artists living in various locations around the globe.

On active service

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired an evocative depiction of soldier Peter Cosgrove by the Victorian-based painter, printmaker and sculptor Rick Amor.

Oz and beyond

Martin Sharp fulfils the Pop art idiom of merging art and life.

Captain W Kinghorne, 1834

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007

Captain James King, engraving after Webber, 1784

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Omai, A Native of Ulaietea, 1774

Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE, 2007

Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007

Study for portrait of Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE, 2007

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007

Study for portrait of Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE, 2007

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007

Study for portrait of Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE, 2007

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007

Sam Haskins

Haskins is known for his poetic combinations of images and this exhibition of 'extended' portraits builds on this approach.

Pigeon coup

Glenn McGrath makes a strong impact on the English batsmen and the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.

Mugshots

A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

Cultural kaleidoscope

The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.

The news from Washington

Australia's former Cultural Attache to the USA, Ron Ramsey, describes the mood at the opening week of the revitalised American National Portrait Gallery.

Flash

Introduction The National Portrait Gallery’s photographic exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus explores various interpretations of Australian sporting men and women.

Hyperversity

Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the larger-than-life Australian performance artist, Leigh Bowery.

Australian Visit

The exhibition will include works of art from the NPG Canberra's permanent collection with some inward loans and aims to highlight the achievements of notable Australians.

Ready , set... shoot

The exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus offers various interpretations of sporting men and women by five Australian photographers.

Promise Fulfilled

The life and achievements of Sir Edward Holden, who is represented in the portrait collection by a bust created by Leslie Bowles.

Study for a portrait of Alex Wodak, 2003

Gift of Dr Jack Wodak 2006. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Shane Warne, 2006

Purchased 2006

Edward John Eyre, 1867

Presented by Sir Roy Strong and the late Dr Julia Trevelyan Oman in memory of their friendship with Gordon Darling and Marilyn Darling 2006

Clifton Pugh

This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.

Glossy too

The Glossy 2 exhibition highlights the integral role magazine photography plays in illustrating and shaping our contemporary culture.

A sketch for some portraits

Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.

Cecil Beaton

Accomplished illustrator, painter, writer and diarist, set designer and one of the most distinguished photographers of the twentieth century, Cecil Beaton is renowned for his portraits of well known faces from the worlds of fashion, literature, and film.

Washington preview

Ron Ramsey, former Director of Cultural Relations at the Embassy of Australia interviewed NPG Washington Director, Marc Pachter, about their building renovations.

Written in Water

Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.

Friends and Acquaintances

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

The Stories Beneath

True Stories

The story behind the creation of the portrait of Helen Garner by Jenny Sages.

A bond of friendship

Australia's major abstract painter Yvonne Audette discusses her portrait of sculptor Robert Kippel.

Peter Brew-Bevan Portraits

In this exhibition Sydney based photographer Peter Brew-Bevan brings together an intimate collection of works that highlight his passion for the genre of portraiture over the last 10 years

The World of Thea Proctor

The World of Thea Proctor is the Portrait Gallery's second major biographical exhibition - that is, the second exhibition to focus exclusively on the life and work of a single individual

Clay, water, fire

Ah Xian's porcelain portrait of paediatrician Dr. John Yu reflects Yu's heritage and interests.

Lady Knox, c. 1927-1929

Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Lady Natasha Johnston, 1968

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Hugo Vickers 2005

Jackie French, 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Self portrait, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Andrew Southall, 1992

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Masters of Fare

Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores celebrates men and women who have championed the unique culinary characteristics and produce of Australia, enriching our lives with new ideas and new flavours over the past forty years.

In a glance

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portrait of Ninette Dutton by Bette Mifsud.

Reflections on portraiture

An extract from the 2004 Nuala O'Flaaherty Memorial Lecture at the Queen Victoria Musuem and Art Gallery in Launceston in which Andrew Sayers reflects on the unique qualities of a portrait gallery.

Bloodlines

Michelle Fracaro describes Lionel Lindsay's woodcut The Jester (self-portrait).

Tiny Trace of a Colonial Giant

At just 7.8 x 6.2 cm, the daguerreotype of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa is one of the smallest works in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Making Portraits

The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery

Marilyn, Marlene and Kelvin Kong, c. 2000

Gift of the artist 2004

Lleyton Hewitt, 1998

Gift of the artist 2004

Sir Percy Spender, 1981

Gift of the artist and the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party of Australia 2004

Kumantjayi Perkins at the Roma Forum, Brisbane, 1982

Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Wendy Sharpe, 2000

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Margaret Dodd, 2002

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gloria Petyarre, 1994

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Tim Storrier, 1995

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Wenten Rubuntja, 1998

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Martin Sharp, 1986

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Donald Friend, 1987

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Australians in Hollywood

Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s

POL

POL was a magazine that ran from 1969 to 1986

TJ Smith and Tulloch, 1960 (printed 2003)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003

Hélène Kirsova with a rope, 1937

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

Hélène Kirsova in Petrouchka, 1936-1937

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

Paul Beadle, c. 1950

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

Anne Boyd, 1977

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

Sue Walker, 1977

Gift of the artist 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

John Firth-Smith, 1974

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

Study for Portrait of W S Robinson, 1952

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2003

Headspace 3

The self-portrait enables students to explore emerging and changing aspects of their own identity, their sense of self, their place in the world, their experience of being human

John Fairfax, c. 1860

Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 2002

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Sir Arthur Coles, c. 1971

Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir George Coles, 1935

Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The sitter (Drusilla Modjeska), 2001

Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Roi de Mestre (Roy de Maistre), c. 1930

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

Robert, Lindy, Grant, 1981

Purchased 2002

Garth Porter, 1975 (printed 2001)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Tony Mitchell, 1975 (printed 2001)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Alan Sandow, 1975 (printed 2001)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Clive Shakespeare, 1975 (printed 2001)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Daryl Braithwaite, 1975 (printed 2001)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sherbet, 1974 (printed 2002)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

George Judah Cohen, 1925

Gift of the National Australia Bank 2002

Me Myself I

Andrew Sayers explores the self-portraits created by Australian artist Sidney Nolan.

Jan Senbergs, 1976

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Padraic McGuinness 2001
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, 1932

Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001

Captain Ulm, 1932

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001

Patrick White, Castle Hill, Sydney, 1963 (printed 2000)

The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001

Leonard French, Heathcote, Victoria, 1969 (printed 2000)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001

Dame Mary Gilmore, c. 1938

Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001

The Tichborne Claimant (Arthur Orton), c. 1872

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

The Burke and Wills Monument, 1869

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Robert O'Hara Burke, c. 1860

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Billy Hughes paperweight, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ric Techow and Jenny Techow-Coleman in memory of Roy and Bet Techow 2001

Mirror With A Memory

This is the first major exhibition to examine photographic portraiture in Australia, from its beginnings in the early 1840s to the present day

Recognition

Originally conceived as an anthropological record, Percy Leason’s powerful 1934 portraits of Victorian Aboriginal people are today considered to be a highlight of 20th century Australian portraiture

Stefano Manfredi, 1997

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior of N.S.W., 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Michael Hutchence, 1997

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Lord Florey, c. 1966

Purchased 1998

Patrick White #1, 1980

Purchased 1998