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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Search / molly meldrum

Molly Meldrum

Biography

Ian 'Molly' Meldrum AM (b. 1946) has a long history of involvement and influence in the Australian rock music industry.

1 portrait in the collection

Molly Meldrum, 2004

Robin Sellick

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

Closer to Heaven, 2013

by Molly Harris

Image

Max Meldrum

Biography

Max Meldrum (1875-1955), artist and teacher, studied at the NGV School before beginning work as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist.

2 portraits in the collection

Max Meldrum, c. 1937

Max Dupain OBE

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

Max Meldrum, 1951

Graeme Inson

Portrait, oil on masonite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Shirley Greathead 2009

Birds' nests, 2012

by Rewa Nolan

Image

Hayward Veal

Biography

Hayward 'Bill' Veal was born in Eaglemont, Victoria, and studied in Melbourne with AD Colquhoun and Max Meldrum between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.

1 portrait in the collection

Graeme Inson

Biography

Graeme Inson (1923–2000), artist and teacher, was born in Cootamundra, New South Wales and educated at Canberra Grammar School.

6 portraits in the collection

A D. Colquhoun

Biography

A D (Archibald Douglas) Colquhoun studied art with his father Alexander, a Glasgow-born painter and critic living in Melbourne, and also at the NGV School and in classes with Max Meldrum.

1 portrait in the collection

Robin Sellick

Biography

Robin Sellick (b. 1967), photographer, is well known for his distinctive portraits of Australian actors, musicians, politicians and athletes.

17 portraits in the collection

Face the Music

Previous exhibition, 2005

Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry

Skyhooks (Red Symons, Bob Starkie, Shirley Strachan, Greg Macainsh, Freddie Strauks) in Parker’s studio, Fitzroy, 1975 David Parker

Cool cool world

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Penelope Grist unpacks photographs by David Parker, who captured the phenomenal emergence of the 1970s and 80s Melbourne music scene.

Meg Padgham

Biography

Meg Padgham studied at East Sydney Technical College and the Meldrum School.

1 portrait in the collection

Ivy Shore

Biography

Ivy Shore (1915–1999), painter, was born in Melbourne, daughter of a South Australian suffragette, Elka, and engineer John Williams.

2 portraits in the collection

Lesley Moline

Biography

West Australian-born Lesley Moline (née O’Toole) studied at Perth Technical College before moving to Melbourne in 1933.

1 portrait in the collection

Rosemary Valadon

Biography

Rosemary Valadon (b. 1947) is a Sydney artist best known for large-scale oil paintings characterised by theatricality and opulence and informed with irony and feminism.

2 portraits in the collection

George Coates

Biography

George Coates, Melbourne-born artist, started his art career in a stained glass workshop, attending classes with Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery school at night.

1 portrait in the collection

Not your average teacher’s pet!

It's Complicated

Love versus art

W B McInnes

Biography

William Beckwith (Bill) McInnes (1889–1939), artist, was only fourteen when he began studying drawing under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery School in Melbourne, before moving to painting.

5 portraits in the collection

Sarah Engledow and Acorn, 2016 by Mark Mohell

Explore The Popular Pet Show

The artists and their furry friends

General content

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

John Hamilton, 1969

Meg Padgham

Portrait, oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Hamilton 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Self portrait, n.d.

Ada May Plante

Portrait, pen and ink, pencil on paper laid on cardboard

Gift of Dr Penny Olsen, Peter Woollard and Artemis Georgiades 2015

Ada May Plante

Biography

Ada May Plante (1875–1950), artist, was born in New Zealand and came to Melbourne with her family in 1888.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Leslie Walford, 1970s

Vaike Liibus

Portrait, oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sally Hardy 2019

Style Over Substance 2020 (still), 2020 The Huxleys

Observation point

Magazine article by The Huxleys, 2022

Growing up feeling isolated, ostracised and ornate in the heated homogeny of the suburbs of Perth and the Gold Coast we often longed and dreamed for an escape.

Of Kings and men

Celebrating 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection

Previous exhibition, 2011

This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.

William Johnson (1873—1948) by Percy Leason

Recognition

Percy Leason's Aboriginal Portraits

Previous exhibition, 1999

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

Vlase Zanalis

Biography

Palassis (Vlase, Vlazio or Vlasio) Zanalis (1902–1973) arrived in Western Australia as a twelve-year-old, accompanied by an uncle, from the Greek island of Kastellorizo in 1914.

1 portrait in the collection

Arnold Shore

Biography

Arnold Shore, a lifelong inhabitant of Melbourne, was apprenticed to a stained glass and leadlight company called Brooks, Robinson soon after leaving school at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

A potpourri of portraits

Magazine article by Natalie Wilson, 2023

Archie 100 curator (and detective) Natalie Wilson’s nationwide search for Archibald portraits unearthed the fascinating stories behind some long-lost treasures.

Percy Leason

Biography

Percy Leason, artist, illustrator and cartoonist, grew up in Victoria's Wimmera region and trained in the rudiments of art in Nhill.

1 portrait in the collection

Face the music

Magazine article by Christine Clark, 2005

Drawn from the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Face the Music explores the remarkable talents and achievements of Australian musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities associated with the music industry.

Sandor Ferenczis 50th birthday dinner, Budapest, 1923

Less than six degrees of separation

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2011

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

Lyndall Hobbs and Marilyn at the Come as your favourite blonde party, Blitz Club, London, 1979 Robert Rosen

Shiny, happy people

Magazine article by Glynis Jones, 2022

Glynis Jones on the Powerhouse’s retrospective of one of Australia’s foremost fashion reportage and social photographers.

Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia by H.R.H. The Duke of Cornwall and York, May 9, 1901, 1903 by Tom Roberts

Empire records

Magazine article by Kylie Scroope, 2011

Celebrates the centenary of the first national art collection, the Historic Memorials Collection, housed at Australia's Parliament House.

Lucy Culliton

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.

Boyd to man

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2016

Christopher Chapman looks at influences and insight in the formative years of Arthur Boyd.

Anna Culliton

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Anna Culliton never had a colouring-in book when she was little. Her parents –Tony, a filmmaker, and Stephanie, a painter – wouldn’t let her have one. Instead, they insisted on her drawing her own pictures to colour-in.

Self-portrait in white jacket , 1901-02 Hugh Ramsay

Wunderkind lost

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2021

Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.

The Art Lovers - Megan, 2013 by Gary Grealy

Everybody, look serious

NPPP 2014 exhibition essay

General content

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.

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