Search / liz land

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004

'This is our land', 2006

by Hari Ho

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hand of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hand of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari, 1975

Mervyn Bishop

Purchased 2000

Zara, 18, Babinda, FNQ. From the series 'The Land of Oz', 2018

by Lee Grant

David Gulpilil, Arnhem Land, 1981 (printed 2000)

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

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

The fat of the land

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

In another land

Geoff Harvey

Portrait, etching, printed in black ink from one copper plate on paper

Truggernana [Trukanini], a native of southern part of V.D. Land

Truggernana [Trukanini], a native of southern part of V.D. Land, 1835

Benjamin Duterrau

Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2009

Woureddy [Wurati], an Aboriginal Chief of Van Diemen's Land

Woureddy [Wurati], an Aboriginal Chief of Van Diemen's Land, 1835

Benjamin Law

Portrait, cast plaster, painted

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Tracey Moffatt filming early land rights march

Tracey Moffatt filming early land rights march, c. 1980

Elaine Pelot-Syron

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Bart Willoughby (No Fixed Address) at 'The National Land Rights Action' march

Bart Willoughby (No Fixed Address) at 'The National Land Rights Action' march, 1982

Gift of the artist 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Justin Shoulder

Deborah Kelly

Penny Tweedie

Aboriginal people and their culture have been the focus of much of Penny Tweedie's photography during the last period of her career.

47 portraits in the collection

Thomas James Lempriere

Thomas Lempriere came to Tasmania in 1822, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land.

1 portrait in the collection

Bushwalk

Matthew Abbott

Martha Sarah Butler

Edward Paine Butler (1811-1849), lawyer, and his wife Martha Sarah Butler (née Asprey, 1811-1864), arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1835.

1 portrait in the collection

Discussion between Bob Hawke and Yunupingu, Burunga Festival, Northern Territory

Yunupingu AM

Yunupiŋu (1948–2023), revered senior ceremonial Yolŋu man of the Gumatj clan from North-East Arnhem Land, fought tirelessly for the rights and recognition of Yolŋu and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people alike.

1 portrait in the collection

A moment, 2016

by Millie Brown

Jessie Robertson

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

Jessie Whyte

Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis Bayliss

Jessie Whyte (née Walker, 1779–1864). Born in Berwickshire, Scotland, Jessie married George Whyte (d.

1 portrait in the collection

Renae Saxby

Vox pops

This is Cindy Rostron. Her father Victor Rostron's art is on the roof, and we're out around Bulman, in Central Arnhem Land.

Ngarrga Jawandaji Dancing for The Sandridge Band Performing Their Song Ngabaya (Spirit People) at the 2021 Malandarri Festival, Yanyuwa Country 2021

William John Pickett Bedford

William John Pickett Bedford (1805–1869) was the eldest of three children of Anglican clergyman, William Bedford (1781–1852), and his wife, Eleanor, and came to Van Diemen’s Land with his family in 1823 following the appointment of his father to a chaplaincy in the colony.

1 portrait in the collection

Tiga Bayles

Harold James Phillip 'Tiga' Bayles (1953–2016), a Birri Gubba Gungalu man, was a broadcaster and Aboriginal rights activist.

1 portrait in the collection

Margaret Robertson

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

Person and Place

The connection between land and identity holds great significance in Australia. While for First Nations people, person and place are intertwined both culturally and spiritually, forming an intrinsic union between Country and self, stories of colonisation and migration are also deeply bound to this nation.

Tim Winton

'I am at the beach'

Portrait story

A series of excepts from Tim Winton's novel 'The Land's Edge'.

William Robertson

William Robertson (1798-1874), pastoralist and entrepreneur, was a key player in the settlement of Victoria in the 1830s.

3 portraits in the collection

Bonita Mabo, 1994 (printed 2011)

Lorrie Graham

Purchased 2011

Tiga Bayles with No Fixed Address at the People for Nuclear Disarmament rally on Palm Sunday, 27 March 1983, 1983

Gift of the artist 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gamaliel Butler, c. 1824

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Merv Shearman 2012

Bonita Mabo

Bonita Mabo AO (c. 1943–2018), South Sea Islander reconciliation activist, was the widow of Torres Strait Islander land claimant Eddie Mabo.

1 portrait in the collection

James Iyuna, 1986

Purchased 2005

Michael Anderson

Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times

Michael Anderson, sheep farmer and Aboriginal land rights activist, was born in Brewarrina, NSW.

1 portrait in the collection

A Politician "Unlock the Lands!" [The Hon. James MacPhearson Grant], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Mandy Martin (1952–2021), painter, printmaker and teacher, was born in Adelaide and studied at the South Australian School of Art from 1972 to 1975.

3 portraits in the collection

Gamaliel Butler, c. 1810

Purchased 2015

Margaret Robertson, c. 1852

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured

Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Limber 7

Tarryn Gill

Latai Taumoepeau, Stelios Papadakis (Photographer) , Sēini Fale'aka Taumoepeau (Kahoa/garland) , Maria José Taumoepeau (Make-up artist)

My Friendly Island Cooks

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Activists

Google Arts and Culture

Learning resources

Explore our complex history and those who have been living in Australia, connecting with the land and telling their stories for 60,000 years. For year 5 – 8 students.

Richard Rouse

Richard Rouse (1774-1852), grazier and landowner, came to New South Wales in 1801 as a free settler with his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772-1849) and the first two of their nine children.

1 portrait in the collection

Gamaliel Butler

Gamaliel Butler (1783–1852), lawyer and free settler, emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1824 with his wife, Sarah (née Paine, 1787–1870).

2 portraits in the collection

Betty Churcher

Recorded 2014

William Robertson, c. 1852

Portrait, 1/6 plate daguerreotype, hand coloured with case

Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Day of Birthday God Death Grandmother 82 RIP Goodbye Sad Mum Died

Cathy Staughton

Lady Angel Dreamland Luna Park St Kilda

Cathy Staughton

Eleanor Dark AO

Eleanor Dark AO (1901-1985), writer, was born and educated in Sydney but moved to the Blue Mountains to live after her marriage in 1922.

1 portrait in the collection

Captain William Kinghorne

William Kinghorne (1796-1878) came to the colonies from Scotland some time before 1824.

1 portrait in the collection

The Hon. Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG

The Hon. Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG (b. 1939) was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009.

16 portraits in the collection

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (1970–2017), a man of the Gumatj clan of north east Arnhem Land, was born blind but learned to play guitar, keyboard, drums and didgeridoo as a child.

1 portrait in the collection

Marcia Langton, 2013

Purchased 2015

Jane Franklin

Brook Andrew, Trent Walter

Jane Franklin (née Griffin, 1791–1875) came to Van Diemen’s Land in 1837 following the appointment of her husband, Sir John Franklin, to the position of lieutenant-governor of the colony.

2 portraits in the collection

Marcia Langton, 2009

Portrait, screenprint on paper

Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2009

Judith Wright

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Judith Wright (1915–2000), poet, conservationist and Aboriginal land rights campaigner, was born at Thalgaroch Station, near Armidale, NSW, into a pastoralist family whose origins go back to the first settlement in the Hunter Valley in the 1820s.

3 portraits in the collection

Nell

Artists and Collectives

Nell is a multidisciplinary artist based on Gadigal land in the Eora Nation, Sydney. Her work fuses mythological, spiritual and popular cultural iconography.

Eddie Mabo (after Mike Kelley's 'Booth's Puddle' 1985, from Plato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's profile) No.3, 1996

John Citizen

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 1999

Eddie Mabo

Koiki (Eddie) Mabo (1937-1992) was born and lived in the Torres Strait until 1959 when he moved to the mainland.

1 portrait in the collection

George Fordyce Story

an unknown artist after Thomas Bock

Dr George Fordyce Story (1800-1885) was an English-born doctor who became district assistant surgeon in Van Diemen's Land.

1 portrait in the collection

Jane Franklin, c. 1866-1875

Portrait, carved marble relief

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Dr G Yunupingu

Magazine article, 2017

Dr G Yunupingu (1970-2017), a man of the Gumatj clan of north-east Arnhem Land, learned to play guitar, keyboard, drums and didgeridoo as a child.

Surveilled

Abdul Abdullah

Watched but not seen

Abdul Abdullah

Mawalan Marika

Mawalan Marika (c. 1908–1967), ceremonial leader, political activist and artist, was leader of the Rirratjingu clan, upon whose Arnhem Land country the Yirrkala Mission was established in the mid-1930s.

1 portrait in the collection

Chest piece, 2014

by Jeremy Shaw

Louis Antoine de Bougainville

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), explorer, was an outstanding soldier, sailor and navigator who was gifted, too, in many intellectual spheres.

2 portraits in the collection

Vincent Lingiari AM

Vincent Lingiari AM (1919–1988) was an Elder of the Gurindji people of the Northern Territory.

1 portrait in the collection

Not so remote, 2014

by Philip Myers

Balang T E Lewis

A & S Ltd after Amélie Romilly

Balang T.E. Lewis (1958–2018), a Murrungun man, was an actor, singer, songwriter and cultural leader.

2 portraits in the collection

Lady Franklin, c. 1850

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

Reverend William Bedford junior, c. 1846

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

Sir Samuel Wilson

Portrait, type C Duraflex print on paper

Sir Samuel Wilson was elected to the British House of Commons in 1886.

1 portrait in the collection

Dr B Marika AO, 1990

Anne Zahalka

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

A Trip to Mayfield Garden

Angie Xu

Richard Rouse (copy of drawing by William Griffith), c. 1847

Portrait, pencil, ink and watercolour on paper

Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)

Julia Swan

Harriet and Julia Swan were daughters of the successful Hobart merchant John Swan (1796–1858), who emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1823 with his wife and first four daughters.

1 portrait in the collection

Harriet Swan

Harriet and Julia Swan were daughters of the successful Hobart merchant John Swan (1796–1858), who emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1823 with his wife and first four daughters.

1 portrait in the collection

Maria Windeyer

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Maria Windeyer (née Camfield, 1795–1878), landowner, emigrated to New South Wales in 1835 with her husband Richard, a barrister, and their infant son, William Charles.

2 portraits in the collection

Songman, portrait of Kev Carmody, 2006

Peter Hudson

Courtesy of Kev Carmody, Song Cycles Pty Ltd.

Jenny Munro

Jenny Munro (b. 1956) is a Wiradjuri elder and prominent activist for Aboriginal rights and sovereignty.

1 portrait in the collection

Bangardidjan

Renae Saxby

Thomas Lord

Thomas Daunt Lord (1783–1865) was the commandant of the convict station on Maria Island from 1825 until 1832.

1 portrait in the collection

Clif Peir

Clif Peir (b.1905) was a Sydney painter and teacher, who studied at the Julian Ashton School under Ashton and H.C.Gibbons.

1 portrait in the collection

Yami Lester speaks at Uluru Handback Ceremony

Yami Lester OAM

A Yankunytjatjara man, Yami Lester OAM (1941–2017) was born at Walyatjata in the north of South Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Alexis Wright, 2009

by Ingvar Kenne

Emily Kngwarreye, 1994

Portrait, type C Duraflex print on paper

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

Mandy Martin, 1990

Anne Zahalka

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

Owen Yalandja, 2009

by Stephen Oxenbury

Major Thomas Lord, c. 1840

Purchased 2015

Wenten Rubuntja AM

Wenten Rubuntja AM (1923–2005) was an Arrernte law man, committee and board member, artist, historian, storyteller and intermediary.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Sidney Kidman

Sir Sidney Kidman, pastoralist (1857-1935), is Australia's 'cattle king'.

2 portraits in the collection

John Wolseley, 2002

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

Antonio van Diemen, Gouverneur Generaal van Nederlands Indiën

Anthony van Diemen

Anthony van Diemen (1593–1645) was governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1636 until 1645.

1 portrait in the collection

Robert Neill

Robert Neill arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Edinburgh in 1820 with his free-settler parents and two siblings.

1 portrait in the collection

Paper plane, 2019

Sarah Rhodes

Gorgi Dimcevski

Gorgi Dimcevski was born in Skopje, Macedonia, where he studied architectural engineering and art history and archaeology.

1 portrait in the collection

Bella in the window of her home school

Agi Davis

James Macpherson Grant, c. 1870s

Paterson Brothers

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, 2009

Guido Maestri

Portrait, oil on linen

Gift of the artist 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Bill Neidjie OAM

Bill Neidjie OAM (c. 1913-2002), a Gagadju man, was the traditional custodian of the Kakadu area of the Northern Territory and spent most of his childhood in this region.

1 portrait in the collection

William St Leonards Robertson, c. 1865

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured

Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Stockyards, 2011

by Adrian Brown

Elizabeth Rouse

Elizabeth Rouse (née Adams, 1772–1849), colonial spouse, arrived in New South Wales as a free settler in 1801 with her husband, Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and their first two children, one of whom had been born on the voyage out.

1 portrait in the collection

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c. 1910–1996) is one of Australia's most significant artists.

21 portraits in the collection

Edward Henty, late 19th century

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tim Clark 2018

Emily, 1994

Portrait, oil on canvas on board

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

Mawalan Marika, c. 1963

Arthur Murch

Purchased 2015

Archie Roach, 2019

Martin Philbey

Bruny d'Entrecasteaux, 1837

Antoine Maurin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Burnum Burnum and Guboo Ted Thomas, 1984

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2004

Ned, 2011

by Benjamin Liew

Return (Balang T.E. Lewis), 2016

Philip Myers

Gift of the artist 2019

Judith Wright, 1988 (printed 2021)

Jacqueline Mitelman

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint and red ochre on canvas

Purchased with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AC 2021

Jack Thompson, 2013

Dr Julie Dowling

Purchased 2015

Frederick E. Du Faur

Frederick Eccleston du Faur (1832–1915), environmentalist, public servant and arts patron, came to Australia from his native London in 1853.

1 portrait in the collection

Roo shooter's offsider, 2017

by Adam Ferguson

Bill Neidjie, 2000 (printed 2008)

Mark Lang

Gift of the artist 2008

Lionel Fogarty

Lionel Fogarty (b. 1958), Yugambeh/Kudjela poet and activist, was born at Barambah, the Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve, near Murgon, Queensland.

1 portrait in the collection

Frog Hunter, Damien Wurrkidj, 2011

by Matthew Abbott

Freeman Brothers after Edwin Dalton

Maria Windeyer, c. 1865-1868

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite on brown paper studio folder

Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018

Wenten Rubuntja, 1998

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

The hoodie

Jacob Nash

Wenten Rubuntja, 2001

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

Hon. Saul Samuel

The Hon Sir Saul Samuel Bart KCMG CB (1820-1900), merchant, politician, company director and landowner, was the first Jewish legislator in New South Wales and the first Jew to become a minister of the Crown.

1 portrait in the collection

Elizabeth Walford

Francis William Barnard Walford (1821–1896), businessman and landowner, was born in Hobart, the son of Barnard Walford (1801–1846), a publican and victualler; and the grandson of Barnard Walford senior (c.

1 portrait in the collection

John Connell

John Connell (c. 1759–1849), free settler, merchant and landowner, came to New South Wales aboard the Earl Cornwallis, which arrived in Sydney in June 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

Rhys Maengwyn Jones

Rhys Maengwyn Jones (1941-2001), archaeologist and academic, grew up in Wales and studied at Cambridge before taking up an appointment at the University of Sydney in 1963.

1 portrait in the collection

Boyca dharraka mayung ngurr gartji. Lardum ratjuk gurr (Boyca at Mayung Creek, Gartji. Hunting for barramundi)

Cassandra Scott-Finn

William Howitt

William Howitt (1792–1879), author, arrived in Victoria in 1852 having worked as a farmer, druggist, alderman and writer in England.

1 portrait in the collection

Gulpilil (David) Dreaming - Kakadu 2006, 2006

George Fetting

Gift of the artist 2008

Hermannsburg Potters, 1999

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

John Eason

John Eason (1799–1858) was a shipwright who worked in Van Diemen’s Land during the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s.

1 portrait in the collection

Gubbo Thomas

Guboo Ted Thomas (1909–2002), land rights activist, was a tribal Elder of the Yuin nation and grew up on the Wallaga Lake Reserve near Narooma.

1 portrait in the collection

Jemima Bellette

George Billett (also Bellett, Bellette and Billet, 1812–1885) was a farmer and landowner, an early settler of Sorell in Tasmania, and the son of two ex-convicts.

1 portrait in the collection

Kate Grenville

Recorded 2014

Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace

Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023–25

Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace is a Yorta Yorta woman. She studied business at TAFE before working as an accounting officer at the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and as a bookkeeper for a farming business.

1 portrait in the collection

National Portrait Gallery staff creating a rainbow for WorldPride 2023

Who we are and what we do

The National Portrait Gallery is an award-winning building situated within Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle, the symbolic centre of Australia’s capital city on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land.

Truth be Told 1

Simone Arnol

Tom E Lewis [Balang T E Lewis], n.d.

Previous exhibition, 2006

Purchased 2021

Headspace 7

Me and My Place

Headspace 7: Me and My Place, the seventh in the National Portrait Gallery's series of student exhibitions, will be presented at Commonwealth Place. Me and My Place is the curatorial theme for the 2006 exhibition.

John Allan

John Allan (1866-1936) was a Deakin shire-councillor for many years and president in 1914-15.

1 portrait in the collection

David Gulpilil AM

David Gulpilil AM (1953-2021), actor and dancer, was a Yolngu man of the Mandhalpuyngu language group and was born near Maningrida in Arnhem Land.

5 portraits in the collection

Thomas Forster Knox

Your backstage pass to 70s and 80s sounds and scenes

The Knox's third son, Thomas Forster Knox (1849-1919) followed his father and older brother into business, and became prominent in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Jimmy Barnes at The Coogee Bay Hotel 1984 (detail) Grant Matthews

Pub Rock

Previous exhibition, 2020

Celebrate the people, places and sounds of Australian pub rock and its enduring impact on our nation’s identity.

The Goodall boys

Tamara Dean

Nikki – Yurrkan Mantangka Ngargnyi – coll 1 (Nikki – young woman on Country)

Martine Perret

The Epitome of Hymie

Daniel Wein

Redfern, I love you - Alan, 2012

by Ben Lawrence

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870) was a poet and horseman. Well-educated, from a relatively well-to-do family, he learned to ride as a boy in England and secured a position in the South Australian Mounted Police in 1852.

1 portrait in the collection

Edmund Jowett, 1917

Boz

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Eleanor Dark, c. 1935 (printed 1940)

Max Dupain OBE

Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

George Bellette

George Billett (also Bellett, Bellette and Billet, 1812–1885) was a farmer and landowner, an early settler of Sorell in Tasmania, and the son of two ex-convicts.

1 portrait in the collection

Jarrah, 2019

Charles Tambiah

Nicolas-Martin Petit

Nicholas-Martin Petit was born in Paris, the son of a fan maker, and learned graphic art in the studio of Jacques Louis David.

9 portraits in the collection

Professor Marcia Langton AO

Professor Marcia Langton AO (b. 1951), anthropologist, geographer and academic, is a descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations of Queensland.

3 portraits in the collection

Ludwig Becker, 1861

Frederick Schoenfeld

Purchased with funds provided by the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Canberra 2000

Dr B Marika AO

Dr B Marika AO (1954–2021), Yolgnu leader, printmaker, arts administrator, environmentalist and cultural activist, was a member of the renowned Marika family of artists and activists.

2 portraits in the collection

Kev Carmody

Acclaimed singer songwriter and activist Kevin Daniel Carmody (Kev Carmody) is a Bundjalung/Lama Lama man born in Cairns in 1946.

2 portraits in the collection

Martha Sarah Butler, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Purchased 2009

William Robertson, 1866

Thomas Adams Hill

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

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

Captain W Kinghorne, 1834

Thomas James Lempriere

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

Jane Rouse

Jane Kennerley (nee Rouse) was born in Parramatta and in 1834 married Alfred Kennerley (1810-1897) who, like Jane's father, owned large amounts of land in western Sydney and on the Cudgegong River.

1 portrait in the collection

The girls, 2017

by Tamara Dean

Zhou Xiaoping

Zhou Xiaoping, born and educated in China, is a Melbourne-based artist.

1 portrait in the collection

Richard Fitzgerald

Photographic Portraiture in Australia

Richard Fitzgerald (1772-1840), convict, public servant and settler, spent four years of his seven-year sentence imprisoned (probably on a floating 'hulk') at Portsmouth before arriving in Sydney in 1791, along with his private assets.

1 portrait in the collection

Mirror With A Memory

Previous exhibition, 2000

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

The Unbreakable, 2018

by Dave Laslett

John Allen Manton

John Allen Manton (1807–1864), Wesleyan minister, arrived in Australia in 1831.

1 portrait in the collection

Kevin Gilbert

Portrait, pen and ink, brush and ink on paper

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

George Lambert in London, c. 1912

Alf Vincent

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Bern Emmerichs

Contributing artists

Born: 1961, Melbourne
Works: Melbourne

Autumn evenings golden glow, c.1942 by Hilda Rix Nicholas

Paris to Monaro

Pleasures from the studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas

Previous exhibition, 2013

After successfully exploring the art scenes of London, France and Morocco, Hilda Rix Nicholas settled at Knockalong, a property near Delegate, on the Monaro plain in the 1920s.

Roger Scott

Roger Scott (b. 1944) is a freelance documentary photographer known in particular for his images of protests and rallies held in Sydney in the 1970s.

2 portraits in the collection

Wendy Whiteley OAM

Wendy Whiteley OAM (b. 1941) is recognised as cultural icon, gardener and activist, who first came to prominence as the wife of renowned Australian artist Brett Whiteley.

1 portrait in the collection

Ossie Cruse AM MBE

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2002

Ossie Cruse AM MBE, Aboriginal Elder and Christian Pastor, has for over 20 years been a prominent campaigner for reconciliation and social justice for Australia's indigenous peoples.

1 portrait in the collection

Little treasures

The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.

John West

John West (1809–1873), clergyman and newspaper editor, was accepted for service in Van Diemen’s Land by the Colonial Missionary Society in 1838.

1 portrait in the collection

Resilience

Indigenous leadership

Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Neville Bonner, Lowitja O'Donoghue, Mandawuy Yunupingu and Adam Goodes

The Migrant, 2017

by Jacqui Stockdale

Batchelder & Company Photo

John Pascoe Fawkner, c. 1867

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Antoine Maurin

Antoine Maurin, lithographer, is little known. He was born in Perpignan, France, and died in Paris.

6 portraits in the collection

Charles Ulm

Charles Ulm (1898-1934) began work as a clerk in a stockbroking office after he left school, but enlisted under a false identity in the 1st Battalion of the AIF just before his 16th birthday.

2 portraits in the collection

Dr B Marika AO

Mihail Tsikas

Alexis Wright

Alexis Wright (b. 1950), author and activist, won the Miles Franklin Award in 2007 for her novel Carpentaria and the 2018 Stella Prize for her collective memoir Tracker.

1 portrait in the collection

Langscape, 2006

by Murray Vanderveer

Rt. Hon. Stanley Melbourne Bruce

Magazine article by Ellen Kent, 2007

Stanley Bruce (1883-1967) was Prime Minister from 1923 to 1929 and Australia's High Commissioner in London from 1933 to 1945.

2 portraits in the collection

A handful of sand

Ellen Kent examines the portrait of Vincent Lingiari and Prime Minister Gough Whitlam taken by photographer Mervyn Bishop.

Zellanach Djab Mara, 2019

Sean Paris

Fred Kruger

Fred Kruger was born in Berlin and came to Victoria around 1860. By 1866 he’d taken up photography, and soon began making his name with landscape photographs, some of which went on to win medals at exhibitions in Vienna, Philadelphia, Melbourne and Geelong.

1 portrait in the collection

James McClelland

Jim McClelland (1915-1999) was a lawyer, politician (senator for NSW 1971-1978), judge and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald (1986).

1 portrait in the collection

Dr B Marika AO, 2020

Mihail Tsikas

Gift of the artist 2022

Charles Windeyer, 1830s

Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sarah and Ann Jacob, c. 1866

Townsend Duryea

Purchased 2018

Sir Mark Oliphant, 1939

Bassano Ltd

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ms Vivian Wilson 2004

Sir Mark Oliphant, late 1960s

Louis Kahan AO

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998

George French Angas

George French Angas (1822-1886) was an artist and shell collector, who published many illustrations of the plants, native animals and peoples of the southern hemisphere.

2 portraits in the collection

Livingston Hopkins

Rene Kulitja and Rhett Hammerton

Livingston Hopkins, cartoonist, was born in Ohio and fought in the American Civil War before beginning his cartooning career in New York.

3 portraits in the collection

Pulangkita pitjangu (When the blanket came), 2019

John Bulunbulun

Portrait drawings from colonial Australia

Johnny Bulunbulun (1946-2010), Ganalbingu (Yolgnu) painter and printmaker, grew up on the island of Milingimbi and in Bulman in southern Arnhem Land.

1 portrait in the collection

Elegance in exile

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.

Tara Gower and Baden Hitchcock, Chicago

Lisa Tomasetti

James Gleeson

James Gleeson AO was Australia's best-known surrealist artist, and from the late 1930s onwards he was a tireless supporter of Australian modern art.

3 portraits in the collection

Fred Williams, 1969

Purchased 1999

Beatrix Potter

Delmar Banner

Ann Mary Windeyer

Ann Mary Windeyer (née Rudd, c. 1783–1865) arrived in Sydney in 1828 with her husband Charles Windeyer (1780–1855) and nine of their ten children.

1 portrait in the collection

Albert and his wife Rubina, Macdonnell Ranges

Rubina Namatjira

Rubina (Ilkalita) Namatjira (1903–1974) was a Kukatja woman and the wife of famous Western Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) is one of the most intriguing and talented figures in colonial Australian art.

4 portraits in the collection

H B. Hall

Henry Bryan Hall grew up in England and began his trade as an apprentice to the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer.

1 portrait in the collection

Discussion between Bob Hawke and Yunupingu, Burunga Festival, Northern Territory, 1988 (printed 2015)

Sue Ford

Portrait, pencil and watercolour on paper

Purchased 2015

Fred Williams, 1980

Andrew Sibley

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Margaret Robertson, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

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

Hon. William McLellan

William McLellan (1831–1906), miner and parliamentarian, served on the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1859 to 1877, and again between 1883 and 1897.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Windeyer

Charles Windeyer (1780-1855), magistrate, emigrated to Australia in 1828, having worked as a journalist, publisher and parliamentary reporter in London.

2 portraits in the collection

Lost in thought, 2008

by Quentin Jones

Livingston Hopkins, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Bringing down a kingdom

Lust

The king and the showgirl

Aaron Woodcock

Portrait, etching on paper

Aaron 'Tommy' Woodcock (1905-1985), horse strapper and trainer, was the son of a Cobb and Co driver and expressed his affinity with horses from an early age.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, 1894

Livingston Hopkins

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace, c. 2000

Penny Tweedie

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

Water as Life: The Town of Wilcannia and the Darling/Baaka, 2006

by Ruby Davies

Portrait, pencil, chalk and gouache on paper

Jessie Robertson, c. 1849

Thomas Bock

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Henry Wade

Portrait, encaustic, oil and pigment on composition board

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

Kate (Kate Grenville), 2012

Jenny Sages

Gift of the artist 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Phillip Gudthaykudthay

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

Philip Gudthaykudthay (b. 1935) Liyagalawumirr (Yolgnu) bark painter, worked as a young man as a stockman, fencer and crocodile hunter around Milingimbi and Ramingining.

1 portrait in the collection

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

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.

Opening of the First Legislative Council of Victoria by Governor Charles Joseph LaTrobe at St Patrick's Hall, Bourke Street West, Melbourne November 13th 1851

John Pascoe Fawkner

John Pascoe Fawkner (1792-1869), sometimes called the 'Founder of Melbourne', was a pioneer and adventurer.

2 portraits in the collection

William Walford

1 portrait in the collection

Rt. Hon. John McEwen CH GCMG PC

Magazine article by Rebecca Ray, 2022

Sir John (‘Black Jack’) McEwen CH GCMG PC (1900-1980) was leader of the Australian Country Party and deputy prime minister from 1958 to 1971.

2 portraits in the collection

Unpacked

Rebecca Ray reflects on Robert Fielding’s Mayatjara series, honouring songlines and intergenerational knowedge.

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

Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times

Portraits from The Movement 1978-2003

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Proof

Previous exhibition, 2003

Portraits from The Movement is the first comprehensive survey of photographs from the Juno Gemes archive, which has supported the Aboriginal struggle for justice in Australia from 1978 to the present day.

Johannes Heyer

Sir Leslie Ward, Vanity Fair Magazine

Johannes Heyer was born at Germantown (Grovedale) near Geelong in Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

a squatter (Sir Samuel Wilson), 1885

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

Helen Grieve

Portrait, pastel and chalk on paper laid down on cotton over Cedar strainer

Helen Grieve (1931–1981), child actress, was born in Sydney. Her first film role was in The Overlanders (1946), opposite Chips Rafferty.

1 portrait in the collection

Jessie Whyte, c. 1840

Thomas Bock

Purchased 2017

Henry Reynolds

Henry Reynolds (b. 1938), historian, studied at the University of Tasmania before taking up a lectureship at Townsville University College (later James Cook University) in 1965.

1 portrait in the collection

George and Jemima Billet with family, c. 1852

C.H.T. Costantini

Purchased 2016

Beau D. Smith

Beau Dean Riley Smith is a Wiradjuri and Gamillaraay man, born in Dubbo.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Harriet Swan, c. 1842

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Portrait of Julia Swan, c. 1842

Anthony Cardon after John T. Barber

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013

David Collins Esq, 1804

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Thanacoupie

Thanacoupie AO (1937–2011), ceramic artist, community worker, elder, and spokesperson, grew up as Gloria Fletcher in North Queensland.

1 portrait in the collection

John Gaden AM

John Gaden AM (b. 1941), actor, studied arts and law at the University of Sydney, but when he joined the Sydney University Players, he abandoned his other pursuits for the stage.

1 portrait in the collection

Jane’s conviction

Devotion

Stand by your man

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa

Theresa Mort

Theresa Shepheard Mort (née Laidley, 1820-1869), colonial spouse, was one of eight children of civil servant James Laidley and his wife Eliza Jane (née Shepheard).

2 portraits in the collection

Shirley Smith AO MBE

Shirley 'Mum Shirl' Smith AO OBE (1921–1998), humanitarian, was a Wiradjuri woman.

1 portrait in the collection

Miss Elizabeth Roberts, 1830

Richard Read Jnr

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on paper

Purchased 2013

Edward John Eyre, 1867

Julia Margaret Cameron

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

Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal), 1965

Clif Peir

Portrait, oil on board

Gift of Richard Brian Close, Githabul people, Woodenbong 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Richard Windeyer, c. 1828

Charles Richard Bone

Portrait, watercolour on ivory in a gold pendant with a lock of hair and gold thread

Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Thomas Wentworth Wills

Edmond John Hogan

Edmond John (Ned) Hogan (1883-1964), farmer and premier, left school early and engaged in road-making, timber-cutting, farm-labouring and rabbiting in addition to farm chores at home.

1 portrait in the collection

Madame Marie Carandini

Marie Carandini (née Burgess, 1826–1894), aka 'Madame Carandini', was seven years old when her family arrived in Van Diemen's Land as assisted immigrants.

1 portrait in the collection

John Tjakamarra, 1974 (printed 2007)

Jon Rhodes

Nicolas-Martin Petit after Barthélemy Roger

Purchased 2008

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

Portrait, engraving, hand coloured on paper

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Groups of four and three people on a theatre stage in front of a dark curtain

stArts with D Performance Ensemble

Artists and Collectives

Based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs and the Central Desert Region, stArts with D disability-led performance ensemble collaborates, creates, and presents original works celebrating identity, place and belonging.

Fred Williams

Fred Williams OBE, painter and etcher, was one of the most important Australian artists of the twentieth century.

14 portraits in the collection

Avril Quaill

Portrait, oil crayon and collage of printed magazine cuttings

Avril Quaill (b. 1958) is a Quandamooka artist, curator and arts administrator.

3 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Philip Nitschke, 1998 (re-worked 2009)

Amanda King

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

John Wolseley

John Wolseley was born in Somerset, England in 1938 and moved to Australia in 1976.

3 portraits in the collection

Frederick George Reynolds

Frederick George Reynolds was born in London, the son of a watercolourist, Frederick G Reynolds senior, who was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Hopkins

Henry Hopkins (1787–1870), merchant and philanthropist, opened his first shop on Elizabeth Street in Hobart soon after arriving in the colony in September 1822.

1 portrait in the collection

Queenie McKenzie Nakara

Queenie McKenzie (c. 1930–1998) was a prominent Gija artist in the East Kimberley painting movement.

1 portrait in the collection

Jeremiah Ware, c. 1854

Robert Dowling

Portrait, oil on board

Purchased with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy and Rosalind Blair Murphy 2014

Lee Kernaghan near Broken Hill, 2005

Ian Jennings

Previous exhibition, 2005

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Cecil Beaton

Portraits

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.

Frederick Cato, 1932

W B McInnes

Gift in memory of Frederick John Cato Kumm 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Henry Mundy

Artist Henry Mundy arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 and took up a position as teacher of drawing, French and music at Ellinthorp Hall, a school near Ross established ‘with a view to the improvement of Young Ladies’.

4 portraits in the collection

Elaine Pelot-Syron

Previous exhibition, 2017

Elaine Pelot-Syron grew up in Miami and came to Australia to teach English in 1971.

1 portrait in the collection

Collection in focus: Brook Andrew

Experience the artistic clout of Brook Andrew’s portraits of Marcia Langton AM and Anthony Mundine.

Jarinyanu David Downs, 1986

Purchased 2005

Edward Paine Butler, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Purchased 2009

John Tebbutt

Portrait, pencil, charcoal and paper collage on paper

John Tebbutt (1834-1916), astronomer, was born into a family of pioneering free settlers and was well educated.

1 portrait in the collection

Study for "Portrait of the artist as an evolving landscape", 1991

James Gleeson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ray Wilson OAM in memory of James Agapitos OAM 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

David Gulpilil's Hands, 2004

Ross Honeysett

Portrait, photographic print from film on paper

Gift of the artist 2021

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM

Hermannsburg Potters, Irene Mbitjana Entata, Virginia Mbitjana Rontji, Lindy Panangka Rontji, Rahel Kngwarria Ungwanaka, Rona Panangka Rubuntja, Dawn Ngala Wheeler, Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Anita Ratara Mbitjana, Hayley Panangka Coulthard, Clara Ngala Inkamala

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB MD FRS (1817-1911), botanist, explorer and medical doctor, visited Australia as a member of James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition of 1839 to 1843.

2 portraits in the collection

Potters' Portrait Pot, 2009

Portrait, fired terracotta clay, underglaze

Commissioned 2009

Henry Reynolds, 2012

Dave Tacon

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

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

Sir William John Lyne

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Sir William John Lyne (1844-1913), politician, was a Premier of New South Wales and a minister in the first Australian parliament.

1 portrait in the collection

Latai Taumoepeau

Artists and Collectives

Latai Taumoepeau, based on Gadigal Country, makes live-art-work drawing her faivā (temporal practice) from her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga, centres Tongan philosophies to make visible the impact of climate crisis in the Pacific.

Malcolm Fraser, Randwick Racecourse, 1975 (printed 2002)

Roger Scott

Purchased 2012

Ann Mary Windeyer, 1847

G Ziegler

Portrait, pastel and gouache on paper laid down on backing sheet

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Joanna Russell Maher (née Windeyer) 2018

An Afternoon (Aunty Jenny Munro at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy), 2015

Dr John Janson-Moore

Portrait, inkjet print on Hahnemühle photorag paper

Purchased 2022

Chandler Coventry, 1999

Anne Zahalka

Purchased 2021

Wandjuk Marika OBE

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

Wandjuk Marika OBE (1927–1987), artist and activist, was a Rirrratjingu (Yolgnu) Elder, and a member of the Marika family of artists from the Gove Peninsula, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir John McEwen, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

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

Sir John McEwen, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

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

Portrait of Henry Hopkins, c. 1845

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2013

Peter Hudson

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Peter Hudson (b. 1950), is a landscape and portrait painter who lives and works in Maleny, Queensland.

5 portraits in the collection

Sir Saul Samuel, c. 1870

Purchased 2014

Sir Mark Oliphant AC KBE

Sir Mark Oliphant AC KBE (1901-2000), physicist, was a pioneer in the development of radar and a member of the international teams that effected the artificial disintegration of the atomic nucleus.

4 portraits in the collection

Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald

Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald (née Rouse, 1818–1863) was born at Rouse Hill, New South Wales, the youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

Thanacoupie, 1981

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004

Susan Lord, c. 1840

Purchased 2015

Robert Edwards, 2009

John Elliott

Commissioned with funds provided by Art Exhibitions Australia 2009

Paul Kelly, 2007

Peter Brew-Bevan

Barthélemy Roger after Nicolas-Martin Petit

Gift of the artist 2012

Ourou-Maré, dit Bull-Dog par les Anglais, Jeune Guerrier de la Tribu des Gwé-Gal

Ourou-Maré, dit Bull-Dog par les Anglais, Jeune Guerrier de la Tribu des Gwé-Gal, 1807-1817

Purchased 2009

Mervyn Bishop

Charles Fox after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Mervyn Bishop (b. 1945), a Murri photographer, began a cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963.

6 portraits in the collection

Alexander MacLeay, c. 1845

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Ginger Riley at the Limmen River, Northern Territory

Ginger Riley at the Limmen River, Northern Territory, 1992 (printed 2013)

Helga Leunig

Gift of Helga Leunig 2013

John Bulunbulun, 1986

Purchased 2005

Magna Carta

On this day eight hundred years ago at Runnymede near Windsor, King John signed Magna Carta.

Phillip Gudthaykudthay, 1986

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on resin-coated paper

Purchased 2005

Marcia Ella, 2006

Sahlan Hayes

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006

Sir Charles Nicholson, 1854

Thomas Woolner

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased through the Foundation Acquisitions Fund 2015

Self portrait, c. 1982

Bea Maddock AM

Portrait, photo screenprint with ballpoint pen framing lines on paper

Gift of David Archer 2016

Paul Kelly, 2004

Jon Campbell

Portrait, synthetic polymer and enamel paint on canvas

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004

A photographer’s glamorous friends

Nearest & Dearest

Community, arts, activism

Portrait of Bennilong, a Native of New Holland

Portrait of Bennilong, a Native of New Holland, c. 1810

Purchased 2014

Malarndirri Barbara McCarthy

Malarndirri Barbara McCarthy is a Yanyuwa woman from Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

1 portrait in the collection

Anna Meares

Portrait, oil on canvas on board

Recorded 2018

Mary Ware, c. 1854

Robert Dowling

Purchased with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy and Rosalind Blair Murphy 2014

Men of High Degree: Kev Carmody (Bundjalung/Lama Lama Peoples), 2023

Brenda L Croft, Prue Hazelgrove, Richard Crampton

Portrait, original wet plate collodion process tintype, digital scan to Ultrachrome pigment on paper

Purchased 2023

Omai, A Native of Ulaietea, 1774

Francesco Bartolozzi after Nathaniel Dance

Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Jarinyanu David Downs

Previous exhibition, 2013

Jarinyanu David Downs (c. 1925–1995), Wangkajunga/Walmajarri painter, printmaker and preacher, lived a traditional life in the Great Sandy Desert of West Australia until he was a young man.

2 portraits in the collection

Paul Kelly and The Portraits

Aspects of singer songwriter Paul Kelly’s performance persona are communicated by portraits selected from a range of artists and leading music photographers in this focus exhibition.

Robert Brown, c. 1835

Dario Castellini after Carlo Liverati

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Richard Windeyer

Richard Windeyer (1806-1847), journalist, barrister and politician, was the eldest of the ten children born to Charles Windeyer and his wife Ann Mary and remained in England when the rest of his family went to New South Wales.

3 portraits in the collection

Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald (née Rouse), c. 1850

Portrait, hand coloured photograph

Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)

Lady Mary Hay

Portrait, gouache on paper

Lady Hay, née Chalmers (c. 1806-1892) was reported at the time of her death to have been about ten years older than Hay.

1 portrait in the collection

Maisie, 1938-1939

Peter Purves Smith

Bequest of Lady Maisie Drysdale 2001

Arthur Boyd, Bundanon, New South Wales, 1995 (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

Portrait of Jawoyn Elder, Margaret Katherine

Portrait of Jawoyn Elder, Margaret Katherine, 2015

John Gollings

Gift of the artist 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

After Ophelia: Fiona Foley at Lake Mackenzie, Fraser Island (Referencing Ophelia by John Everett Millais)

After Ophelia: Fiona Foley at Lake Mackenzie, Fraser Island (Referencing Ophelia by John Everett Millais), 1994

Magazine article by Jo Bertini, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Kitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapinni at Milikapiti (Snake Bay)

Eye line

Jo Bertini describes the evolution of her portrait of artists and friends Kitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapinni.

Robert Kermode

Robert Quayle Kermode (1812-1870), politician, was born on the Isle of Man and educated at Castletown.

1 portrait in the collection

David Gulpilil, c. 1981

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

Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards AO

Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards AO (1930-2023) made a remarkable contribution to the cultural sector in Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane (1773-1860) was born into an aristocratic Scottish family and entered the army at the age of 16.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Albert Victor Jennings, 1984

Kate Gollings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001

Sidney Kidman and Arthur Triggs, c. 1914

Falk Studios

Batchelder & Company Photo

Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, c. 1870

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

Mum Shirl (Mrs Shirley Smith), 1988

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

William Robertson junior, c. 1857

Conway Hart

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Tim Fairfax, 2018

by Russell Shakespeare

Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018

Antonia Blaxland

Portrait Photography from the Collection

Antonia Blaxland (1929-1989), photographer, was the great-great granddaughter of Gregory Blaxland, leader of the successful Blue Mountains expedition in 1813.

1 portrait in the collection

In the mirror: self portrait with Joy Hester

Depth of Field

Magazine article by Ashleigh Wadman, 2011

Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.

Yolngu boy

Guy Maestri’s portrait of the musician was conceived after the artist saw Gurrumul perform in Sydney on New Year’s Eve 2008.

Jack Thompson, 2019 (printed 2021)

Peter Brew-Bevan

Samuel Bellin after Thomas Heathfield Carrick

Gift of the artist 2021

Lord John Russell, 1844

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Lee Kernaghan OAM

Lee Kernaghan (b.1964) is a country music singer and songwriter. Born in Victoria, son of travelling country music artist and impresario Ray Kernaghan, Lee Kernaghan grew up in the Riverina area of New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Yami Lester speaks at Uluru Handback Ceremony, 1985 (printed 2003)

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

Master Molteno, c. 1866

Townsend Duryea

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

Wandjuk Marika, 1979

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2004

The Hon Gough Whitlam, Ossie Cruse and Michael Anderson, 1981 (printed 2003)

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

Aden Ridgeway

Aden Ridgeway (b. 1962), Aboriginal rights advocate and former politician, was a senator for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005.

3 portraits in the collection

Dame Mary Gilmore, c. 1938

Lyall Trindall

Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001

Portrait of Bennilong, Native of New Holland

Portrait of Bennilong, Native of New Holland, c. 1798

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Eccleston Du Faur, 1911

Violet Teague

Gift of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service 2020

Dan Sultan, 2011

Martin Philbey

Purchased with funds provided by Ruth and Peter McMullin 2013

Linda Burney MLA Canturbury and Rick Farley at home, Marrickville

Linda Burney MLA Canturbury and Rick Farley at home, Marrickville, 2003

Moses Griffith after John Lewin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Yango Mungo ye Yango of Bathurst's Plains

Yango Mungo ye Yango of Bathurst's Plains, 1824

Portrait, copper engraving, hand coloured on paper

Purchased 2011

General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1850 (published)

James Faed, W Wilding after John Watson Gordon

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Powerful energy

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2010

Dr Christopher Chapman explores the symbolism in the portrait commission of Marcia Langton by Brook Andrew.

Shirley Purdie

Shirley Purdie (b. 1947) is a senior Gija artist at the Warmun Art Centre who has been painting for more than twenty years.

1 portrait in the collection

Tim Fairfax AC, 2018

Russell Shakespeare

Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018

Edward Knox Jnr and Thomas Forster Knox., c. 1855

Portrait, oil on canvas mounted on board

Portrait, daguerreotype

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010

Rosalie Kunoth, 1967

Donald Cameron

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

Mandawuy Yunupingu, 1991 (printed 2011)

Lorrie Graham

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Mandawuy Yunupingu, NT, 2004

John Elliott

Portraits in the Landscape

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Open Air

Previous exhibition, 2008

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

Ricky Maynard

Ricky Maynard (b. 1953) is an Indigenous Tasmanian photographer. He is best known for his Tasmanian photographic essays The Moonbird People (1985–1988) and Portrait of a Distant Land (2005), made while he was living and working on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait.

1 portrait in the collection

The Cape of Good Hope ( Sir Henry Barkly)

Sir Henry Barkly GCMG KCB

Portrait photography by John Elliott

Sir Henry Barkly GCMG KCB (1815-1898) started his career in business and politics before serving terms as governor of British Guiana and then Jamaica.

4 portraits in the collection

Thousand Mile Stare

Thousand mile stare provides a unique portrait of people of rural Australia

The Movie Star (David Gulpilil), 1985

Tracey Moffatt

Gift of the artist 1998. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Mark Oliphant, c. 1948

Lotte Meitner-Graf

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ms Vivian Wilson 2004

Martha Knox, c. 1855

Portrait, daguerreotype

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010

Barbara McCarthy, c. 2000

Penny Tweedie

Portrait, pencil on paper

Gift of the artist 2004

Head studies: Preparatory study for 'Nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground'

Head studies: Preparatory study for 'Nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground', 2001

eX de Medici

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001

Queen Rose of the Wathaurung People, c. 1876-1877

Fred Kruger

Portrait, albumen paper photograph

Purchased 2017

Jarinyanu Dancing at Broome Festival, 1990

Jarinyanu David Downs

Portrait, natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer paint on linen

Purchased 2017

William Edward Harney

Previous exhibition, 2010

William Edward (Bill) Harney (1895–1962), bushman and raconteur, spent his childhood in Charters Towers and Cairns and started working as a stockman and boundary rider at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

Jenny Sages

Paths to Portraiture

The exhibition Sages examines the process of portrait making through four large-scale portraits of women by Jenny Sages, paired with intimate preparatory drawings.

Death mask of George Melville courtesy of National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Old Melbourne Gaol Collection

A colourful story from Sideshow Alley

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

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

Hermannsburg Potters

Portrait, mixed media on canvas

The Hermannsburg Potters are a collective of highly respected senior women artists of the Western Arrarnta (Arrernte) community.

1 portrait in the collection

Patrick Dodson, 2004

Zhou Xiaoping

Gift of the Lingiari Foundation 2015

Frederick Cato

Portrait, pastel and coloured pencil on paper

Frederick Cato (1858-1935), grocer and philanthropist, was born in a tent at Pleasant Creek (Stawell), to the Scottish wife of an English gold miner.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait (Hilda in the Chinoise hat)

Self portrait (Hilda in the Chinoise hat), c. 1913

Hilda Rix Nicholas

Gift of Bronwyn Wright 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Henry John Rous

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

Henry John Rous (1795–1877), naval officer, racing enthusiast and politician, arrived in Sydney in February 1827 as the commander of the frigate HMS Rainbow.

1 portrait in the collection

The bright-eyed Mariner

A new colonial portrait brings a zealous captain near.

Dan Sultan

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Dan Sultan (b. 1983), Arrernte/Gurindji singer/songwriter, grew up in Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

Husbands and Wives

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

Fred Williams, Upwey, Victoria, 1963 (printed 2000)

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

Avril and Miya, 1990 (printed 2013)

Michael Riley

Purchased 2013

Tommy Woodcock and Reckless, 1977 (printed 2010)

Bruce Postle

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010

Avril, 1986 (printed 2013)

Michael Riley

Magazine article by Rebecca Ray, 2022

Purchased 2013

Beau Dean Riley Smith, Wiradjuri and Gamilaraay nations, Bennelong, 2017

Space in between

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

Fiona McMonagle

Contributing artists

Born: 1977, Letterkenny, Ireland
Works: Melbourne

Queenie McKenzie Nakara, 1997

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

Emily's brush, 1994

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

Kay Cottee AO

Kay Cottee AO (b. 1954) became the first woman in history to complete a solo, non-stop and unassisted voyage around the world.

1 portrait in the collection

Kumantjayi Perkins at the Roma Forum, Brisbane

Kumantjayi Perkins at the Roma Forum, Brisbane, 1982

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

Aden Ridgeway, c. 2000

Penny Tweedie

Previous exhibition, 2022

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

The 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.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020

Previous exhibition, 2020

The 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.

Men of the Day No.19 "A great Med'cine-Man among the Inqui-ring Redskins" (Thomas Henry Huxley), 1871

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Purchased 2015

Ann Moyal, 1957

Pamela Thalben-Ball

Gift of Ann Moyal 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Ali Cobby Eckermann and Lionel Fogarty at the Hawkesbury River, 2014

Portrait, cast plaster, patinated

Purchased 2015

Captain Ulm, 1932

Enid Fleming

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

Australian visit in Denmark

Magazine article by Mette Skougaard, 2006

In April 2006 the National Portrait Gallery showcased Australian portraits at the Fredenksborg Castle in Denmark.

Dame Mabel Brookes, c. 1955

Sir William Dargie CBE

Gift of Rodney Davidson AO OBE 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Rupert Hamer AC KCMG ED

Sir Rupert ‘Dick’ Hamer AC KCMG (1916-2004) was premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait 64

Summer 2019/20

Magazine

Marian Anderson, emerging photographer Charles Dennington, piscatorial portraits, and the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou and more.

Joseph Dalton Hooker, c. 1880s

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

Neil Murray

Neil Murray (b. 1956), singer/songwriter, grew up in country Victoria, studied art and became a teacher.

2 portraits in the collection

Jack Thompson AM

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

Jack Thompson AM (b. 1940) is an actor and the face of the 1970s Australian film renaissance.

3 portraits in the collection

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney

Heads of the People

Previous exhibition, 2000

For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history

Captain Matthew Flinders RN, 1814

an unknown artist, Joyce Gold Naval Chronicle Office

Previous exhibition, 2023

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

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

The 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.

Lady Maisie Drysdale

Lady Maisie Drysdale (1915–2001), children's librarian and artists' muse, developed an interest in art as a child, and attended both the University of Melbourne and George Bell's art school.

1 portrait in the collection

Ginger Riley

Archived media releases 2016

Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (c. 1937-2002), stockman and artist, was born in south-eastern Arnhem Land, in the coastal salt-water country of the Mara people.

1 portrait in the collection

Provocative talks on Saturdays in September

29 August 2016

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.

Faith Bandler AC

Faith Bandler AC (1920–2015), civil rights activist and writer, was born in Tumbulgum, New South Wales, to a Scottish-Indian mother and a cane-worker father from Ambrym Island, in what is now Vanuatu.

2 portraits in the collection

Jon Molvig

Magazine article by Stephen Dupont, 2008

Helge Jon Molvig was born and grew up in Newcastle, where he left school at thirteen and worked in a garage and at the steelworks.

6 portraits in the collection

Axe Me Biggie

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

Bungaree

Bungaree (c. 1775–1830), voyager, navigator and diplomat, was among the most significant Sydney-area Indigenous leaders of the early colonial period.

3 portraits in the collection

Juno Gemes

Photographer and social justice activist Juno Gemes (b. 1944) has spent much of her long career documenting the lives and struggles of First Nations people.

38 portraits in the collection

Baron Jacques Hamelin

Baron Jacques Hamelin (1768-1839), French naval officer, began his sailing career at seventeen, making his first long voyage on a merchant marine ship to and from Angola.

1 portrait in the collection

Senator Aden Ridgeway, 2003

Previous exhibition, 2018

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

The 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.

Vincent Brady leading anti Bicentenary Protest, Brisbane, 1987 Michael Aird

Activating the space

Magazine article by Sandra Phillips, 2020

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

Mandawuy Yunupingu AC

an unknown artist, Joyce Gold Naval Chronicle Office

Dr Mandawuy Yunupingu (1956–2013), singer songwriter, was the lead singer of Australia's pre-eminent Aboriginal band, Yothu Yindi.

2 portraits in the collection

Captain Matthew Flinders RN, 1814

Previous exhibition, 2019

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Primed

Some Prime Ministers

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

Top of the pops to golden guitars

The Seekers, John Farnham and Lee Kernaghan

Thomas Bock

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

Thomas Bock, artist, printmaker and photographer, is believed to have been born at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, in 1790.

3 portraits in the collection

Alexander Pearce
executed for murder
July 19th 1824

Public hanging

As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.

John Gollings

Portrait, pencil on paper

John Gollings made his first photographs and received darkroom tuition at age eleven; he later studied Arts/Architecture at Melbourne University, supporting himself through architectural and wedding photography.

3 portraits in the collection

Alex Miller, 1992

Rick Amor

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Nancy Menetrey

Nancy Menetrey (née Wilkinson) was born in Sydney in 1924. After serving with the Australian Women's Land Army, formed during the Second World War to address labour shortages in the agricultural sector, she travelled overseas in the early 1950s, living and working in London for a number of years.

1 portrait in the collection

John Williams

John Williams (1796-1839), missionary, began his working life in 1810, apprenticed to an ironmonger, but in 1814 he underwent an Evangelical conversion and became a member of the Tabernacle Church (Calvinistic Methodist).

1 portrait in the collection

Sue Ford 1980-2006, 1980-2006 (printed 2013)

Ruth Maddison

Purchased 2013

Dame Mary Gilmore DBE

Magazine article by Yvonne Audette AM, 2005

Dame Mary Gilmore DBE (1865–1962), poet, journalist and social reformer, was born near Goulburn and had an itinerant childhood as her father moved the family around New South Wales for work.

3 portraits in the collection

Meeting by Murder

The story behind two colonial portraits; a lithograph of captain and convict John Knatchbull and newspaper illustration of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke.

William Charles Wentworth -The Australian Patriot

William Wentworth

William Wentworth (1790-1872) was a landowner, barrister and statesman.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Douglas Mawson Kt OBE FRS

Sir Douglas Mawson Kt OBE FRS (1882-1958) is considered one of the twentieth century's most eminent explorers.

3 portraits in the collection

William Bligh

William Bligh (1754-1817), naval officer, was born in Plymouth and first went to sea at around the age of eight.

3 portraits in the collection

William Bligh, c. 1776

John Webber

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2015

Jeremiah Ware

Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mary Ware

Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Hilda Rix Nicholas

Previous exhibition, 2018

Emily Hilda Rix left Australia in March 1907, having trained for three years at the National Gallery School.

1 portrait in the collection

Collection: Icons

Volume One

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.

Clifton Pugh

Australians

Previous exhibition, 2005

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.

Alexander Macleay

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2009

Alexander McLeay (aka Macleay) (1767-1848), public servant and entomologist, acquired an interest in insects while working as a clerk in London.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Truganini, daughter of the Chief of Bruny Island, Van Diemens Land, c. 1835

Black and white history

English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.

Shane Gould

Born the year that Dawn Fraser won her first Olympic Gold medal, Shane Gould (b.1956) in her very brief international career, became one of the world’s greatest female swimmers.

Fred Williams - Painter, 1981

Rennie Ellis

Previous exhibition, 2023

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

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.

Sir Tristan Antico, 1993 (printed 2018)

Gary Ede

Purchased 2018

David Collins

Previous exhibition, 2010

David Collins (1756–1810), lieutenant-governor, began his career in the British Navy, rising to the rank of captain before being returning to dry land and being placed on half-pay in late 1783.

1 portrait in the collection

Australian of the Year

Inspiring a Nation

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

Bea Maddock AM

Previous exhibition, 2006

Bea Maddock AM (1934–2016) studied at the Hobart Technical College in the early 1950s before travelling to London, where she attended the Slade School from 1959 to 1961.

2 portraits in the collection

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.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO

Australian Athletes in Focus

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (c. 1932–2002) was a founding member of the artists cooperative established at Papunya in the early 1970s and one of the most renowned practitioners within the Western Desert art movement.

2 portraits in the collection

Flash

Previous exhibition, 2006

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

Rick Amor 21 Portraits

20 November 2014

Archived media releases 2014

Press releases and image downloads for media.

Sir James Dowling

Sir James Dowling (1787-1844), judge, worked as a parliamentary reporter before he was called to the Bar in London in May 1815.

1 portrait in the collection

Patrick Dodson

Patrick Dodson (b. 1948), Indigenous advocate and senator for Western Australia, is a Yawaru man who was born in Broome but spent most of his childhood and early schooling in the Northern Territory.

1 portrait in the collection

Rick Amor

Rick Amor (b. 1948) is a Victorian-based painter, printmaker and sculptor.

27 portraits in the collection

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-c. 1848) went to school and university in Germany but the range of his interests was such that he never actually graduated (he was later called Dr Leichhardt in recognition of his broad scholarship).

1 portrait in the collection

Poison pen

Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.

Icons

Parliament House

Touring exhibition, 2019

To Look Within

Self Portraits in Australia

Magazine article by Djon Mundine OAM, 2017

This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present

Big shots

Djon Mundine OAM brings poignant memory and context to Martin van der Wal’s 1986 portrait photographs of storied Aboriginal artists.

Now and then

Polly Cutmore

Magazine article, 2023

Photographed 35 years apart, these two portraits offer both a timeline of, and thematic thread for, Maria (Polly) Cutmore’s life – from a young woman to a respected Gomeroi Elder.

John Russell

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell KG GCMG PC (1792 –1878) was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841 and served twice as Prime Minister of Great Britain, in 1846-1852 and 1865-1866.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) travelled to Australia as a member of the expedition conducted by Owen Stanley on the Rattlesnake between 1846 and 1850.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm, 1961

Sir William Dargie CBE

Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001

Hon. Gough Whitlam AC QC

an unknown artist, Thomas Wharton

Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (1916-2014) was prime minister from the end of 1972 to the end of 1975.

12 portraits in the collection

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa, c. 1847

Portrait, daguerreotype in a pinchbeck case

Purchased 2001

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Previous exhibition, 2015

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.

Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster

Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster, c. 1780

Jean Francois Rigaud

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family, the Ian Potter Foundation and John Schaeffer AO 2009

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.

The Hon E.G. Whitlam AC QC, 1980

Graeme Inson

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on masonite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1814

Thomas Phillips

Frederick Bromley after Robert Frain

Purchased 2011

Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1842

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Sue Ford

Sue Ford (née Winslow, 1943–2009), photographer, filmmaker and photo-media artist, grew up in the beachside suburbs of Melbourne and became interested in photography while on holiday in Europe at age 17.

2 portraits in the collection

Edmund Jowett

Previous exhibition, 2017

Edmund Jowett (1858-1936), pastoralist, businessman and politician, was the son of a stuffmaker and learned the wool trade at his uncle's mill in Thornton, Yorkshire.

1 portrait in the collection

Nicholas Harding

28 Portraits

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.

Marilyn Ball, Albatross, 2018 (detail) by Linde Ivimey

So Fine

Contemporary women artists make Australian history

Previous exhibition, 2018

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.

Peace, the Man and Hope (Anthony Mundine), 2005 by Brook Andrew and Larry Rawling (printer)

In focus

Magazine article, 2017

Brook Andrew, Marcia Langton and Anthony Mundine.

Matthew Abbott

NPPP 2012 learning resource

An interview with the photographer.

Sideshow Alley

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

Previous exhibition, 2015

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.

Eva Besen AO

John Cochran after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Eva Besen AO (1928–2021), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with her husband Marc Besen AC.

1 portrait in the collection

The family, c. 1955

Charles Blackman OBE

Portrait, oil on board

Gift of Barbara Blackman 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c., 1838

Previous exhibition, 2009

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009

In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.

Aretha Brown

In conversation

Magazine article by Rebecca Ray, 2023

Gumbaynggirr artist Aretha Brown talks street art, collaboration and ghost stories with First Nations Curator and Meriam woman, Rebecca Ray.

Marc Besen AC

Marcus (Marc) Besen AC (1923–2023), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with his wife Eva Besen AO.

1 portrait in the collection

David Cossini

Vox pops

Godfrey's amazing man. I've known him for four years now. He has a very tough story.

Storied portrait

Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.

Elizabeth Lewis

Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mortimer Lewis

Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM

Significant Australian Women 1913–2013

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM (1937-2022), Arrernte and Anmatjere woman, Aboriginal activist, former actress and nun, was born at Artekerre soak on Utopia Cattle Station in the Northern Territory, the daughter of Allan and Ruby Kunoth.

2 portraits in the collection

First Ladies

Previous exhibition, 2013

First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.

Stanley Bruce, 1937

Barbara Tribe

Portrait, cast bronze

Gift of the artist 2000

W. B. Gould

Liverpool-born William Buelow Gould (1803-1853) had worked as a draftsman for the London printmaker, Rudolph Ackermann, and as a painter for a Staffordshire pottery before being transported to Van Diemen’s Land for theft in 1827.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir George Houston Reid GCB GCMG KC

Archived media releases 2015

Sir George Houstoun Reid GCB GCMG KC (1845-1918) was Australian prime minister from August 1904 to July 1905.

3 portraits in the collection

Wendy Whiteley in conversation with Janet Hawley

19 October 2015

Wendy Whiteley in candid conversation with Janet Hawley to celebrate the release of the book Wendy Whiteley and The Secret Garden.

Adrian Brown

NPPP 2012 learning resource

An interview with the photographer.

Eko Nugroho

by Adeline Ooi

Five Years of National Portrait Gallery Commissions

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

Making Portraits

Ashtead Potters Limited, Surrey, UK, Percy Metcalfe

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

Portrait jug of Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1925-1928

Portrait, glazed ceramic

Purchased 2006

Living landscape

Magazine article by Gillian Raymond, 2016

Gillian Raymond ponders landscapes as self-portraiture in Michael Taylor’s intimate expressionism.

Dan the man

Magazine article by India Bednall, 2015

Martin Philbey’s portrait of Dan Sultan.

Mrs Elizabeth Lewis, c. 1830

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

William Charles Wentworth, 1854

Thomas Woolner

Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The Conciliation, 1840 by Benjamin Duterrau

The art of conciliation

Magazine article by Gareth Knapman, 2017

Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.

William P. Dowling

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

Elizabeth Roberts

Elizabeth Roberts (1812–1833) was the daughter of Warwickshire-born William Roberts (1754–1819) and his wife, Jane (née Longhurst, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mr John Eason, 1838

W. B. Gould

NPPP 2020 exhibition essay

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2013

Writing on the Wall, 2019 Dr Christian Thompson AO

To arrive at hope

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

Penelope Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2020 Prize.

Black tie or wombat: How formal should I go?

Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.

Situated self-portraits

Magazine article by Katherine Russell, 2006

The theme of the seventh annual survey of secondary school student portraiture, Headspace, was Me and My Place.

James McClelland, 1946

Nancy Borlase AM

Portrait, oil on composition board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gillian Appleton (McClelland) 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

William Barak at work on the drawing ‘Ceremony’ at Coranderrk

William Barak at work on the drawing ‘Ceremony’ at Coranderrk, 1902

Johannes Heyer

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, sepia toned on paper

Purchased with the assistance of funds provided by the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society 2000

Country man

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2015

Angus Trumble’s tribute to the late Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser.

Sir Thomas Gore-Browne, 1864

J Walch & Sons

Portrait, tinted lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

The consolations of religion

A bushranger meets his maker, 6 January 1826

Archibald McDonald, Henry Samuel Sadd

James McCabe provides proof that hanging wasn’t necessarily a fate reserved for the perpetrators of murder and other deeds of darkest hue.

The Catholic Hierarchy of Australia, 1869

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Introversion from High Jinks in the Hydrangeas, 2020 Tamara Dean

In our nature

Magazine article by Tara James, 2022

Tara James chats with award-winning artist Tamara Dean about portraiture prizes, the environment and the strength of women.

Admiral Bligh, 1801

John Chapman

Magazine article by Krysia Kitch, 2016

Purchased 2010

Studio portrait of servicewoman Lance Corporal Kathleen Jean Mary (Kath) Walker, c.1942

Past present

Krysia Kitch celebrates Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

Poets' Portraits

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

The Portrait Gallery's paintings of two poets, Les Murray and Peter Porter, demonstrate two very different artists' responses to the challenge of representing more than usually sensitive and imaginative men.

Chandler P. Coventry AM

Chandler Phillip Coventry AM (1924–1999), grazier, gallerist, art collector and arts patron, was born in Armidale, New South Wales to an established New England grazing family.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir William John Macleay

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Sir William John Macleay (1820-1891), pastoralist, politician, collector and promoter of science, had just begun to study medicine in his native Scotland when family circumstances dictated his migration to New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863

William Edward Kilburn

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

Fits of delicacy and despair

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist, c. 1870

James E. Bray

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite photograph

Purchased 2017

Centenary of ANZAC

Portrait, oil and polymer vinyl paint on canvas

Just now we pause to mark the centenary of ANZAC, the day when, together with British, other imperial and allied forces, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Gallipoli at the start of the ill-starred Dardanelles campaign.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 2002

Tim Johnson

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

C.H.T. Costantini

Portrait, pencil on paper

Charles Henry Theodore Costantini (also Constantine, Constantini and Costantine) was a Paris-born surgeon of Italian descent who was twice transported to the Australian colonies in the 1820s.

1 portrait in the collection

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval, 1985

Rick Amor

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2016

William Henry Harvey

Portrait, albumen photograph carte de visite on card

William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), botanist, formed a boyhood passion for natural history which was encouraged at Ballitore School, County Kildare.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Henry Barkly, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir Charles Nicholson

Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903), statesman, landowner, businessman, connoisseur, scholar and physician, was born illegitimately into unpropitious circumstances in Yorkshire.

2 portraits in the collection

Neilma B. Gantner

Neilma Baillieu Gantner (1922–2015), writer and philanthropist, was the second child of Melbourne retailer Sidney Myer and his wife Merlyn (née Baillieu).

1 portrait in the collection

Cover, first minute book of the Tasmanian Society of Natural History

Embrace your inner nerd

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

The southern winter has arrived. For people in the northern hemisphere (the majority of humanity) the idea of snow and ice, freezing mist and fog in June, potentially continuing through to August and beyond, encapsulates the topsy-turvidom of our southern continent.

‘Untitled’ - Yellow Kangaroo Paw, 2008 by Christian Thompson

The 'I' in Indigenous art

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

Yanyangkari Roma Butler and Yangi Yangi Fox from Irrunyju (Wingellina), Western Australia, 2017 Rhett Hammerton

Weaving identity

Magazine article by Rebecca Ray, 2022

Rebecca Ray explores the way identity, belonging and connectedness are translated through materiality in First Nations portraiture.

The Saint and the merchant

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.

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.

Marianne Egan

Mary Anne Egan (also Marianne or Marian, née Cheers, 1818–1857), was born in Sydney, the daughter of ex-convicts.

1 portrait in the collection

Monument to Mrs. Moore St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool, Sydney

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.

Robert Brown

Magazine article by June Oscar AO, 2017

Robert Brown (1773–1858) is considered ‘the father of Australian botany’.

2 portraits in the collection

Powerful Indigenous women

June Oscar AO lauds three iconic Aboriginal figures in the Portrait Gallery collection who have inspired and influenced her.

Have you forgotten yet? 2014 by Lee Grant

All that fall

Magazine article by Raimond Gaita, 2015

Raimond Gaita comments on war and truth in the context of the First World War.

Painting mates

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2011

Michael Desmond discusses Fred Williams' portraits of friends, artist Clifton Pugh, David Aspden and writer Stephen Murray-Smith, and the stylistic connections between his portraits and landscapes.

Some women you may not know

Alison Alder

‘Everybody’s lives are built by so many influences, and for me, it is writers, artists and activists who have influenced how I think about the world.’

The Mutineers turning Lieut Bligh and part of the Officers and Crew adrift from His Majesty's Ship the Bounty

The Mutineers turning Lieut Bligh and part of the Officers and Crew adrift from His Majesty's Ship the Bounty, 1790

Robert Dodd

Portrait, aquatint engraving on paper

Purchased with funds provided by the Ian Potter Foundation 2008

Sketches and sermons

Magazine article by Jessica Smith, 2009

Jessica Smith looks at the 'fetching' portrait of Tasmania's first Anglican Bishop, Francis Russell Nixon by George Richmond

Anna F. Walker

Magazine article by Lilly Koltun, 2004

Anna Frances Walker (1830–1913), botanical artist and collector, was one of the thirteen children of Thomas Walker, a high-ranking colonial public servant, and his wife Anna Elizabeth, the daughter of merchant and landowner John Blaxland.

1 portrait in the collection

Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Marquis de Vaudreuil, ca.1753-55

Canadian identities

An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.

Times like these

Magazine article by Gavin Fry, 2010

Gavin Fry examines the art and career of the Australian painter Rick Amor.

Trumble's way

NPPP 2007 exhibition essay

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?

Seduce, Amuse, Entertain

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.

Seduce Amuse Entertain

Michael Desmond profiles a handful of the entrants in first National Photographic Portrait Prize and notes emerging themes and categories.

Louis XVI giving final instructions to the Comte de La Perouse, c. 1785

Sea legged frogs

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

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

The eye and the heart

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

Staying home

True south #2

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

Mal Meninga, 2018

by Peter Hudson

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018

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.

Nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground

Seduce and Destroy

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2001

Magda Keaney explores the symbolism in eX de Medici's portrait of Midnight Oil.

Gordon Darling Hall, National Portrait Gallery

Architecture

About us

Natural light and human proportions – the design by Johnson Pilton Walker

Costantini's convictions

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2017

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

Joan Alone

Magazine article by Julia Gillard AC, 2015

Julia Gillard pays poignant tribute to her friend and mentor, the late Joan Kirner, Victoria’s first and only female premier.

Portrait of Lady Eyre Williams (Jessie Gibbon)

Chance encounter

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

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

So Fine

17 May 2018

Archived media releases 2018

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.

The Cutmear sisters, Jane and Lucy, c. 1842

A man of superior attainments

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.

A guy from Paris

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2018

Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.

Thilin-Thilin Gooragall Nyajaringil Garnkiny-nu (white gum tree, mother for the moon), 2018 by Shirley Purdie

Storytelling

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2011

The fourth row of paintings interweave Ngarranggarni, memories, relationships and Country.

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.

Pre-Raphaelite Profile

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.

So Fine

28 June 2018

Archived media releases 2018

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.

The 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize

16 June 2023

Media

Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize.

A Family Being Served with Tea, ca. 1745 by an unknown artist

A reflection on conversation pieces

There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.

Grateful admiration and brotherly love

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders and Dr Christopher Chapman, 2018

In the earliest stages of the Great War, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton was turned into a military hospital, and arrangements made there to accommodate the different dietary and other requirements of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim patients.

Selfhood transcended

Anne Sanders and Christopher Chapman bring passionate characterisation to Express Yourself, the Portrait Gallery collection exhibition celebrating iconoclastic Australians.

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, 1824 by James Thomson

Audacity, audacity, audacity

Magazine article by Roger Benjamin, 2015

Angus delves into the biographies of two ambitious characters; Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir John Pope-Hennessy.

Yellow portrait (portrait of Alex Jelinek)

Fugue in Yellow

Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.

Ngarranggarni

The third row of paintings come from Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).

200 Years of Portraiture

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.

Waterfall in Australia, c. 1830 by Augustus Earle

Augustus serendipitous

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

The shipwright's arms

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

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

The artist and her family, c. 1854 by Martha Berkeley

Presence and absence

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

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

M H Wednesday 11.15am from the series Self-harm, 2004

Big it up

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2005

Former National Portrait Gallery Curator Magda Keaney was a member of the selection panel of the Schwepes Photographic Portrait Prize 2004 at the National Portrait Gallery London.

Where the wild things are

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2009

Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.

Thousand mile stare

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2004

John Elliott talks about his photographic portrait practice, including his iconic image of Slim Dusty arm-in-arm with Dame Edna Everage.

Michael Wardell – Country of birth: Ireland 2014 by Jacques van der Merwe

Look who's coming to dinner

Magazine article by Michael Wardell, 2016

Michael Wardell’s personal insight into Jacques van der Merwe’s New Arrivals.

Depth of Field

Magazine article by Lauren Dalla, 2004

The exhibition Depth of Field displays a selection of portrait photographs that reflect the strength and diversity of Australian achievement.

Nusra Latif Qureshi

by Hammad Nasar

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

Nusra Latif Qureshi was born in Pakistan in 1973 and originally trained in the traditional art of Mughal miniature (musaviri) paintings.

Thrown together

Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.

Expect the unexpected

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

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

The Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen KGAK GCMG GCVO KBE QC, 2006 by Rick Amor

Prima facie

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.

Material culture

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

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

More cash than dash

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

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

Two painters

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2007

Chris Chapman explains how Matthys Gerber bridges the gap between abstraction and portraiture.

Pushpamala N

by Ajay Sinha

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

Pushpamala N. was born in 1956 in Bangalore. Her early training was in sculpture, but as her practice progressed she brought an early enthusiasm for narrative figuration into her photographic work.

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.

The Triumph of Death, c. 1562 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Black Death

The best horror stories are real. A flea sinks its proboscis into the skin of a sick black rat, feeds on its blood, and ingests lethally multiplying bacteria.

Nikhil Chopra

by Rattanamol Johal

Magazine article by Karen Quinlan AM, 2019

Nikhil Chopra was born in 1974, in Calcutta. His first degree was in commerce, but in 1997 he took up fine art studies, eventually gaining a Masters in Fine Art from Ohio State University, United States.

Girl with Cigarette, c. 1925 by Agnes Goodsir

Agnes enigma

Karen Quinlan considers the case of Agnes Goodsir, whose low profile in Australia belies her overseas acclaim.

Nannultera, a young cricketer of the Natives' Training Institution, Poonindie , 1854 John Michael Crossland

The catechist and the cricketer

Magazine article by Stephen Valambras Graham, 2021

Stephen Valambras Graham traverses the intriguing socio-political terrain behind two iconic First Nations portraits of the 1850s.

A sketch for some portraits

Magazine article by Judith Pugh, 2005

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

Star signs

Magazine article by Barry York, 2018

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

Mary (or Diana) Croker, mat woman, Colchester, 1823 by John Dempsey

Unknown drawer

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

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

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

Exhibition introduction

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

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.

Alternative virtue

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

Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian endeavouring to escape in the boats

South-bound and down

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

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

Each morning when I wake up I put on my mothers face, 2000

Paths to portraiture

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

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

Omai, Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, 1775-76

First encounters

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

The look and the feel

Living Memory exhibition essay

Magazine article by Esther Agostino, 2015

Editor Stephen Phillips looks at the finalists' photographs through a judge's lens.

Amy Johnson wearing a woollen suit from the collection of flight clothes designed by Madame Schiaparelli for her solo flight from London to Cape Town, 1938 unknown photographer

Air wear

Aviation carried women’s roles in society to greater heights – fashion followed suit.

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

Foundation Members

Foundation

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

A real Pratt

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

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.

Pop poet

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2013

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

Chet Baker, singer, New York City, January 16, 1986 by Richard Avedon

The existential lens

Magazine article by Stephen Zagala, 2013

Stephen Zagala discusses Richard Avedon’s work from an Australian perspective.

Ms Anna Burke MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives 2015 by Jude Rae

Hired guns, bounty hunters and horse whisperers

Magazine article by Jude Rae, 2016

Jude Rae contemplates the portrait commission.

Portrait of William Manning, c.1821 by Henry Bone

Of beef in burgundy

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2017

Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.

Fine and dandy

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

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.

All dressed up

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?

Worth her salt

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

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

Private virtues public lives

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

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

Portrait of Elizabeth Gould with a raptor, possibly a red-footed falcon (Falco vespertinus), painted in her lifetime Artist unknown

Birds of a feather

Magazine article by Annette Twyman, 2021

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

The Wentworths – Hidden in Plain Sight

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2015

Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.

Forest Creek, Mount Alexander Diggings, 1852 by S. T. Gill

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

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.

Profile of a marriage

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the lives of Sir George Grey and his wife Eliza, the subjects of a pair of wax medallions in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Anangu landscape learning

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Angus' initial perception of Uluru shifts, as he comes to see it as central to the entire order of Anangu life.

Yanyuwa young men, The Song Peoples Sessions CD Launch Rehearsals, Yanyuwa Country, 2012 Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis

Us being ourselves

Penelope Grist talks to photographer Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis about capturing moments, telling stories and keeping Culture strong.

Some prime ministers

Magazine article by Jennifer Higgie, 2022

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

Women make history

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

In good company

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

Jean Appleton’s 1965 self portrait makes a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection writes Joanna Gilmour.

Friends and Acquaintances

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

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

First-Class Marksman, 1946 by Sidney Nolan

Money for Myth

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2015

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

Sydney city (Patrick White and Tom Uren, Hiroshima Day demonstration), 1984

The activist A-list

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

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.

The Dissecting Room

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

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

Sibly irresistible

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2019

Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.

Nicholas Harding

Explore The Popular Pet Show

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.

Lady Jane Grey, c.1590-1600 (also known as The ‘Streatham’ portrait) Artist unknown

The Royal she

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2019

Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.

Little women

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

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

Portrait of a Pioneer , 1917
Violet Teague

Off her own bat

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.

Cachasunghia, Osage Warrior 1804–06 by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

Political profiles

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

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.

Generous Janice

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

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

An evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

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

Painting writing

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

Trevor Jamieson, 2016 by Brett Canet-Gibson

The more things change...

NPPP 2017 exhibition essay

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

The personal and the historical

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Where do we draw a line between the personal and the historical? Although she died in Melbourne in 1975, when I was not quite eleven years old, I have the vividest memories of my maternal grandmother Helen Borthwick.

Helen Blaxland judging flower arrangements, c. 1940s photographer unknown

Petal to the mettle

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

You are who?

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

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

Studio portrait of Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, 1914 by J Russell & Sons

All the way with K of K

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2016

Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.

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.

The art of Inner Worlds

Lecture, 7 May 2011

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

Less than six degrees of separation

Lecture, 28 May 2011

Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay