Search / nicholas whitlam

Nicholas Whitlam, Head of the NSW Rural Bank,

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001

(Margaret Whitlam) by the strength of her skin, 1998

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

Gough Whitlam, 1975 (printed 2010)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

The Hon E.G. Whitlam AC QC, 1980

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

Margaret Whitlam, 2005

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Gough Whitlam, n.d.

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

Gough Whitlam, n.d.

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

Gough... maintain the rage!, 1976

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

Prime Ministers

On the day before the Hon. E. G. Whitlam, AC, QC, died last month, at the great age of 98, there were seven former prime ministers of Australia still living, plus the incumbent Mr. Abbott – eight in all.

Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke, c. 1976 (printed 2017)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Gough Whitlam, 2005 (printed 2015)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2015

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

Purchased 2000

Robyn Archer and Gough Whitlam, 1986 (printed 2019)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019

A handful of sand

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

Whitlam & Snedden, 1974

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

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.

Gough and John, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

The little beachcomber, 2015

To Bare all, 2012

Tristan Has A Bad Heart, 2018

Queen Elizabeth I

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

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

Shadow crown

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

George Nicholas, 1955

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Hilton Nicholas AM OBE 2010

Nicholas Harding

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

Nicholas Hope,

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2007

Nicholas Harding

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

Nicholas Chevalier, c. 1867

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

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.

Alice Want, 1853

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

Study for portrait of Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Richard Roxburgh, 2014

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

John Olsen AO, CBE, 2017

Gift of the artist 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The house, the horse, the wife and the offspring

Joanna Gilmour writes about the portraiture of the colonial artist William Nicholas.

Hugo at home (Hugo Weaving), 2011

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2012

Study for John Bell as King Lear, 1998-2001

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

Rocking the boat, 2006

Undercurrent

Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the portraiture of Australian artist Nicholas Harding.

Robert Drewe (in the swell), 2006

Purchased 2010

Through thick and thin

Sarah Engledow likes the manifold mediums of Nicholas Harding’s portraiture.

Waiting for Godot

'Artist and actors, advancing spasmodically, find their rhythm together' writes Sarah Engledow.

Robert Drewe

Artist Nicholas Harding talks about what was captured in his portrait of Robert Drewe.

Nicholas Harding

Artist Nicholas Harding talks about how he became interested in portraiture, and his motivation in painting Hugo Weaving.

Lear unbuttoned

Sarah Engledow steps up to the footlights and applauds the storyline behind Nicholas Harding's portraits of actor John Bell.

Nicolas Baudin, Capitaine de Vaisseau. Commandant I'Expedition pour le tour du Monde et Specialement relatif aux Sciences et auz Arts, entreprise en I'An gme, 1800, 1800

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Vue de George’s Street à Sydney, 1833

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Give me five

National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan AM nominates her quintet of favourites from the collection, with early twentieth-century ‘selfies’ filling the roster.

Theresa and James Laidley Mort, 1844

Gift of the Mort family 2009

Nicholas Hannen and Athene Seyler, London, c. 1952 (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.

Paris to Monaro

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.

Drawing workshop: Focus on the face with Nicholas Harding

Join us from wherever you are for an intimate, online drawing workshop with British-Australian artist Nicholas Harding.

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Arcadia

An exhibition of photographs by John Witzig, drawings by Nicholas Harding and film footage by Albe Falzon, expressive of the free-spirited, hot-blooded energy of Australian surfers under the cloud of conscription to Vietnam.

Nicholas Hopwood

It came at a time when, you know, we're all questioning our mortality, things are happening in the world.

Paris to Monaro

Structured around the biography of artist Hilda Rix Nicholas, this is a companion to our 2013 exhibition Paris to Monaro. For secondary students.

Vali Myers

Interview with Vali Myers' friend, Dimmi, the lift-attendant at the Nicholas Building in Melbourne.

The Popular Pet Show

This exhibition expresses the joy and warmth that many of us derive from our animal companions, and celebrates their trusting, unpretentious ways, with portraits of Australians and their furry, feathered and fluffy friends.

William McMahon, 1973

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Portrait 44

This issue features The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait, Nicholas Harding, Ingvar Kenne, Laura Moore, Michael Rosen and more.

Portrait 37

This issue features Jenny Sages, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, Brook Andrew's portrait of Marcia Langton, Nicholas Harding, Lola Montez, Mick Molloy and more.

Portrait 50

This issue features Julia Gillard on the late Joan Kirner, Julian Opie’s digital portraiture, Nicholas Harding’s Godot gouaches and more.

Malcolm Fraser, 1990 (printed 2010)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Dimitri, 2008

Darling Portrait Prize 2022

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015). The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.

First study for portrait of Malcolm Fraser, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Elizabeth Reid, 1989

Gift of Elizabeth Reid 2019

Billy McMahon, 1972

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

Mungo MacCallum, press gallery cricket, 1973

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

Fuzzy Prime Ministers of Australia

In the one hundred years since Federation, Australia has produced twenty-five Prime Ministers of all shapes, shades and sizes

Al Grassby and Penny Dent, Community Relations Commission, Canberra, 1982

Purchased 1999

Mirror With A Memory

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

John Gorton, 1970

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Observation point

Nicholas Harding describes his enduring fascination with drawing and painting people.

Arcadia learning resource

A great addition to themes such as Australian History, Sport, Australian Studies, Cultural Studies, English and Visual Arts. For Year 9 – 12 students.

Junie Morosi, 1975

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

John Gorton, 1997

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Kenneth Myer DSC AC, 1985

Gift of Dr Ray Marginson AM 2001

Awesome Achievers

Celebrate and be inspired by talent, passion and achievement – and triumph over adversity. This exhibition features major portraits drawn from the National Portrait Gallery collection and supplemented with works from private and institutional sources.

Bill Leak, 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Arcadia media information

Press releases and image downloads for media.

Junie Morosi, 1975 (printed 2002)

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

Portrait 58

Paul Cézanne, Bill Henson and Simone Young, Australian cinema’s iconic women, and feminist portraits by Kate Just.

Head of H.C. Coombs, c. 1972 (cast 2018)

Purchased 2018

Pets of all types take over the National Portrait Gallery

It is not every day that a national gallery turns its walls over to the animal companions that bring unconditional love and joy to their owners but this summer we have opened the doors to 15 contemporary artists with very different ways of depicting our furry, feathered and scaled pets.

Nourou-gal-derri, 1807-1817

Purchased 2009

Malcolm, 1976

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

Gloves off (Tom Uren), 1996

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001

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

Purchased 2022

John Gorton, 1970 (cast 1999)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Cast 1999 from terracotta donated by Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999

Tribute

Edward Tom Uren AC (1921-2015), former Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, was a major campaigner on environmental and urban-planning issues and rights for veterans.

David Gulpilil's Hands, 2004

Gift of the artist 2021

William Lanne, c. 1866

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by
Allanah Dopson & Nicholas Heyward 2009

The attractions of bohemia

In the company of women

Charles Dickens

Portrait of Philip Williams, 2019

Gift of Rick Amor and Meg Williams in memory of Althea 'Bid' Williams 2020. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

David Gulpilil, c. 1981

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

Sketch for portrait of Tom Uren, 1972

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tom Uren's family 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Ben Chifley, n.d.

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Professor Paul Korner, 2011

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ann Korner, Nicholas Korner, Anthony Korner and Harriet Bingham 2015

Gulpilil (David) Dreaming - Kakadu 2006, 2006

Gift of the artist 2008

Glossy 2

Following the success of Glossy: Faces, Magazines, Now in 1999 the National Portrait Gallery again highlights the huge array of contemporary portraiture in the pages of magazines.

My Favourite Australian

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

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.

David Gulpilil, Arnhem Land, 1981 (printed 2000)

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

Of Kings and men

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

Icons Syndicate

Fred Gruen, 1941

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds donated by Andrew Sayers and from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Donors

Recollections of a sinologist sitter

Professor Stephen Fitzgerald, Australia’s first Ambassador to China, traces the historical course from sino-australian cultural engagement to a maturing Australian identity.

Head study for portrait of Margaret Olley, 1994

Bequest of Nick Enright AM 2004

Glossy too

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

Paper weight

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

Open Air

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

Trukanini, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Allanah Dopson and Nicholas Heyward 2009

Dr Sarah Engledow

Dr Sarah Engledow was appointed Historian at the National Portrait Gallery in 1999.

Primed

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

White Whiteley

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

Cherish the brethren

Fortunately, perhaps, there is no instruction manual for newly appointed art museum directors.

Patrick White and Manoly Lascaris, 1987

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

Triumphant weekend for Gallery at MAPDAs

The National Portrait Gallery has had its most successful Multimedia and Publication Design Awards (MAPDAs) ever, winning four awards across multiple categories. The awards were presented at a ceremony at the Australian Maritime Museum last Friday night.

My Favourite Australian

The Australian public was invited in 2008 to vote for their favourite Australian.  After the votes were tallied an exhibition of the top-ten Popular Australians and the top-twenty unsung heroes was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery.

Lewis Morley

Lewis Morley has a great eye for a shot and a sharp ear for a pun

Observation point

I have known Dr Aunty Matilda House, Ngambri Elder, Traditional Custodian and Cultural Knowledge Holder, since I was a child.

Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, c. 1962

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Bunting in honour of Sir John Bunting and the Menzies Foundation 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

National Portrait Gallery unveils twenty new portrait commissions to celebrate twenty years

The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled twenty new portrait commissions of Australian leaders and individualists as part of its twentieth birthday celebrations in a new exhibition, 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.

Finalists announced for National Photographic Portrait Prize

The National Portrait Gallery would like to congratulate the forty finalists for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019.

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.

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

Purchased 2023

Australians in Hollywood

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

2015-17 Acquisition Fund

From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.

The champs

Two lively portrait photographs reflect the agility of their subjects: world champion Australian sportsmen Lionel Rose and Anthony Mundine.

Tim Fairfax, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018

blood/memory: Brenda & Christopher I (Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra; Mara/Ngarrindjeri/Ritharrngu; Anglo-Australian/Chinese/German/Irish/Scottish) 2021, 2022 (printed 2023)

Purchased 2023

Australian of the Year

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

Lady Barkly, 1863

Purchased 2014

The activist A-list

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

Sideshow Alley

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

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.

Husbands and Wives

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

Uncommon Australians

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

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

Gift of the Jozef Vissel 2015

Empire records

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

My dream job

Artist David M Thomas lists some of the ideas and influences behind his video portraits.

In character on location

A photograph of Claudia Karvan that blends actor, character, photographer and captures the creative collaboration of the television series Love my way. 

Lovingly observed

Sarah Engledow previews the beguiling summer exhibition, Idle hours.

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.

Lovers of light

Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.

Prima facie

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

Portrait Donors

Announcing Shakespeare to Winehouse

More than eighty treasures from the National Portrait Gallery London will travel to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from March 2022.

The Wentworths – Hidden in Plain Sight

Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.

Some prime ministers

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

The news from Washington

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

Talking heads

In their own words lead researcher Louise Maher on the novel project that lets the Gallery’s portraits speak for themselves.

School portraits

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

Desperately seeking Sonia

Esther Erlich’s portrait of Lady McMahon.

Seduce, Amuse, Entertain

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.

The fat of the land

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

20/20 launch speech

Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

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

Twin chics

Joanna Gilmour on the exuberant union of fashion pioneers Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson, captured in luminescent splendour by artist Carla Fletcher.

Paper, boy

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

A real Pratt

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

Enigma

Grace Carroll contemplates the curious case of Christian Waller.

No Laughing Matter

The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.

Their brilliant careers

Jenny Gall delves into Starstruck to celebrate some of Australian cinema’s iconic women.

All dressed up

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

The life of Bryant

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

Friends and Acquaintances

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

The importance of being bearded

Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.

More cash than dash

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

Listomania

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

The real Thea

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

Everybody, look serious

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

Uncommon Australians

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

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

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

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.