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Cherry Hood (b. c. 1950), is an artist well known for her haunting, large-scale images of faces.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of Marion Borgelt 2022. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Tim Olsen 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
Sir Alexander Fuller-Acland-Hood Bart MP (1853-1917) was MP for West Somerset from 1892 to 1911, when he was created Lord St Audries.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Ronald Walker 2002
Purchased 2010
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
Encompassing the 1820s to the 2020s, Time and Line showcases the depth and extent of our drawing collection.
Magda Keaney examines the 123 Faces project by Simon Obarzanek.
Simon Tedeschi (b. 1981), award-winning classical pianist, grew up in Sydney, and essentially abandoned his school lessons as an adolescent to concentrate on his piano studies with Neta Maughan.
1 portrait in the collection
This display sets two impressive portraits from the collection into direct dialogue: Sam Jinks’ sculptural self portrait and Nick Mourtzakis’ painted portrait of David Chalmers, along with related maquette and sketches.Together they explore physical and psychological manifestations of the strata of self-hood.
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled twenty new portrait commissions of Australian leaders and individualists as part of its twentieth birthday celebrations in a new exhibition, 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
Dissections, showcases the hyper-realist sculptural self-portrait of artist Sam Jinks, Divide, alongside the painted portrait of philosopher David Chalmers by Nick Mourtzakis, which was commissioned by the Gallery in 2011.
Errol Flynn (1909-1959), actor, was born in Hobart, where his father was a biology lecturer, and spent his childhood in Tasmania, England and Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
William Paul Dowling (1824–1877) is thought to have studied art in his native Dublin before settling in London, where he worked as a draughtsman while trying to establish himself as a portraitist.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 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.
Anna Volska (b. 1944), actor, came from Poland to Australia with her mother when she was seven.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2018
Curator Michael Desmond introduces the exhibition Truth and Likeness, an investigation of the importance of likeness to portraiture.
Russell Crowe (b. 1964), actor, was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He moved at the age of four to Australia, where his parents worked as caterers on TV and movie sets.
2 portraits in the collection
Jacki Weaver AO (b. 1947), actor, was a household name in Australia for 40 years before rising to international prominence.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Warwick Baker’s photos of his friends are intimate. They hold a stillness that allows their subjects to be at ease.
Kevin Gilbert (1933-1993), Indigenous activist, writer and artist, wrote the first play by an Aboriginal person to be publicly performed in Australia.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2018
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.
Karen Quinlan considers the case of Agnes Goodsir, whose low profile in Australia belies her overseas acclaim.
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.
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.
Peter Jeffrey trips the hound nostalgic.
National Photographic Portrait Prize judge Christopher Chapman connects this year’s entries to iconic contemporary american photographers.
Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2015 Prize.
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.
Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.
Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.
The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.
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.
Dr Anne Sanders previews the works in the new focus exhibition Paul Kelly and The Portraits.
Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.
Alison Weir explores the National Portrait Gallery, London and the BP Portrait Award to find what makes a good painted portrait - past and present.
Long after the portraitist became indifferent to her, and died, a beguiling portrait hung over its subject.
Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.
Dr Sarah Engledow puts four gifts to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection in context.
It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.