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Dame Nellie Melba GBE (1861–1931), world-renowned soprano, was born Helen Porter Mitchell in Melbourne.

8 portraits in the collection

Dame Nellie Melba, c. 1890

Walery

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

Portrait sketch of Nellie Melba, 1902

Hugh Ramsay

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on cabinet card

Gift of the Mitchell Family and the Fullerton Family 2000

Dame Nellie Melba,

an unknown artist

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

Dame Nellie Melba, n.d.

Aime Dupont

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

Dame Nellie Melba, c. 1901

Rupert Bunny

Portrait, pencil on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Madame Melba, 1922

Harold Cazneaux

Purchased 2015

Fame or celebrity?

About Face article

A question lately cropped up in connection with Madame Melba as to whether fame and celebrity are not essentially the same thing. My feeling is that they are different.

Nellie Melba, 1898

Ernest Walter Histed

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Doodles of the Diva

Three tiny sketches of Dame Nellie Melba in the NPG collection were created by the artist who was to go on to paint the most imposing representation of the singer: Rupert Bunny.

Pretty in peach

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2008

It's remarkable that the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond has produced two of Australia's most successful opera singers. Three decades apart, but within a short distance of each other, both Helen Porter Mitchell and Florence Wilson were born.

Suave

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.

Great stylists: Caruso, Melba, Pavarotti, Bonynge and Sutherland, 1983

Arthur Horner

Portrait, pencil on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Eric Harding and Athol Hawke 2002

The Payne family, 1888-1889

A Flegeltaub

Portrait, albumen photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018

Portrait 20

June - August 2006

Magazine

This issue of Portrait Magazine features Dame Nellie Melba and Frances Alda, Leigh Bowery, Karin Catt, Sidney Nolan and more.

Ruskin

Ruskin was a Sydney photographic business, located at 159 O'Sullivans Road, Rose Bay.

1 portrait in the collection

Florence Austral, c. 1930

Howard Barron

Gift of the University of Newcastle (Australia) 2007

Howard Barron

Howard Barron (1900–1991), artist, was born in Kent, England. He arrived in Sydney in 1924 where he trained with Sir Will Ashton.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Robert Helpmann CBE

Sir Robert Helpmann CBE (1909–1986) was a dancer, actor and choreographer.

3 portraits in the collection

Ambrose Patterson

Ambrose Patterson (1877-1967) was a printmaker, painter and teacher. Like Ramsay, Patterson studied under Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait (Full Length in front of Easel)

Hugh Ramsay

Hugh Ramsay (1877-1906), painter, was born in Scotland but arrived in Australia as a baby.

3 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Ambrose Patterson, 1901-1902

Hugh Ramsay

Gift of the Estate of John Oswald Wicking 2003

Self portrait with scarf, c. 1930s

Rupert Bunny

Gift of Philip Bacon AM 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Robert Helpmann, c. 1965 (printed 2015)

Jozef Vissel

Portrait, watercolour and bodycolour on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Jozef Vissel 2015

An international troupe of two

It's Complicated

Office romance

Self portrait, 1909

Bess Norriss Tait

Purchased with funds provided by Barbara and Jim Higgins 2010

Self portrait (Full Length in front of Easel), 1901-1902

Hugh Ramsay

Gift of the Estate of John Oswald Wicking 2003

John Longstaff

Sir John Longstaff, born in Clunes, Victoria, studied at the NGV school from 1883 to 1887 and thenceforth at Corman's in Paris.

1 portrait in the collection

Frances Saville, 1903

Reutlinger Studios

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

The sculptor (George Lambert and Arthur Murch)

The sculptor (George Lambert and Arthur Murch), c. 1929

Harold Cazneaux

Portrait, montage of gelatin silver photographs on paper

Purchased 2015

Robert Helpmann, 1969

David Moore

Purchased 1998

Frances Alda, 1912

Herman Mishkin

Purchased 2007

Browning Mummery

Joseph Browning Mummery (1888-1974), was born in inner suburban Melbourne to a musically-inclined family who fostered his interest in singing.

1 portrait in the collection

Frances Alda, 1918

Herman Mishkin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Roger Neill 2006

Frances Alda

Frances Alda (1879–1952) was one of the world's greatest sopranos. Born Fanny Jane Davis in Christchurch, New Zealand, which claims her as a prominent expatriate, she was raised in Melbourne, where she began singing operetta in 1897.

2 portraits in the collection

Yvonne D. Kenny AM

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper laid on photography studio backing board

Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny AM (b. 1950) studied science at the University of Sydney before deciding to pursue an opera career instead.

1 portrait in the collection

Florence Cardell-Oliver, n.d.

Broothorn Studios

Gift of Chris Nielsen 2016

Charles Haddon Chambers

Charles Haddon Chambers (1860-1921), playwright and dramatist, grew up in Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Annie May Moore

Annie May Moore (1881-1931) was born in New Zealand and studied at the Elam School of Art and Design in Auckland.

5 portraits in the collection

Florence Austral

Portrait, ink and watercolour on cardboard

Florence Austral (1892–1968), operatic soprano, achieved international renown during the 1920s.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Haddon Chambers, 1921

Ralph Barton

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Slim Dusty and Dame Edna Everage, Carlton Hill Station, WA, 10 July 1993

Rarely Everage

The Lives of Barry Humphries

Previous exhibition, 2002

The exhibition begins with Barry's childhood in Camberwell, Melbourne and chronicles his days as a struggling actor in Australia and England, his creation of characters including Barry McKenzie, Dame Edna Everage, Sandy Stone and Sir Les Patterson

Bewitching

Magazine article by Roger Neill, 2006

Roger Neill delves into the life of a lesser-known Australian diva, Frances Alda.

La Milo in Lady Godiva procession, Coventry, 1907

Pansy Montague

Pansy Montague, ‘La Milo’ (c. 1885-unknown) appeared as a chorus girl and actress in Melbourne from about 1898, and in 1901 understudied Nellie Stewart in Sydney.

10 portraits in the collection

J.C. Williamson, c. 1913

John Longstaff

Gift of the family of Aimée Viola Horsley, daughter of J.C. Williamson 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Edith E. Williams

Edith Ellen Williams (nee Horne, (1851–1885) was the first wife of Hartley Williams (1843–1929), a Victorian Supreme Court judge from 1881 until 1903.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Hartley Williams

Sir Hartley Williams (1843–1929), judge, was the third child and second son of Edward Eyre Williams and his wife, Jessie.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur Murch

Arthur Murch, artist, is best-known as a painter in a colourful cubistic style, but he was occupied with sculpture throughout his career.

8 portraits in the collection

David Mitchell

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

David Mitchell (1829-1916), builder, contractor and businessman, arrived in Melbourne in mid-1852 in the Anna.

1 portrait in the collection

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

W & D Downey

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

Henry Squires, c. 1861

Dalton's Royal Photographic Gallery

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite, hand coloured on card

Purchased 2009

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.

15 minutes of frame

NPG Wellington, Edinburgh and Canberra, 10th March 2021

Recorded virtual programs

Delve into the lives, loves and labour of the world’s most prominent portrait galleries in this international conversation series.

Velasquez Touch

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers, explores the creative collaborations between four Australian artists living in Paris during the first years of the twentieth century.

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa

Husbands and Wives

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

Australian Visit

Previous exhibition, 2006

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.

Rupert Bunny