Search / percy hobson

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on resin-coated paper

Born in the NSW town of Bourke, Percy Hobson (1943–2022) became Australia's national high-jumping champion in 1962 with a jump of 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 metres).

1 portrait in the collection

Percy Hobson, 2006

Sahlan Hayes

Purchased 2006

Percy Lindsay

Percy Lindsay (1870-1952), artist, was the eldest child of Robert and Jane Lindsay, born, as were his nine siblings, in Creswick, Victoria.

4 portraits in the collection

Percy Spence

Percy Spence, born in Balmain, grew up in Fiji and began art classes in Sydney in about 1888.

1 portrait in the collection

Percy Leason

Portrait, oil on composition board

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

Self portrait, c. 1930

Percy Leason

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Anton Cook 2009

Sir Percy Spender KCVO KBE QC

Portrait, cold cast bronze

Sir Percy Spender KCVO KBE QC (1897-1985) was a politician, statesman, diplomat and judge.

3 portraits in the collection

Percy Spender

In their own words

Recorded 1968

Sir Percy Spender, 1981

Alex Kolozsy

Gift of the artist and the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party of Australia 2004

Sir Percy Spender, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

Portrait, black conte on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Henry Parkes, 1900

Percy Spence

Portrait, pencil and pastel over brown ink wash on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir Percy Spender, 1955

Wilfred John Peisley

Portrait, oil on canvas

Gift of John Spender KC 2015

Portrait jug of Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1925-1928

Ashtead Potters Limited, Surrey, UK, Percy Metcalfe

Portrait, glazed ceramic

Purchased 2006

Ted Dyson, Bill Dyson (with pipe) and Percy

Ted Dyson, Bill Dyson (with pipe) and Percy, c. 1899

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Percy, Ted Dyson and Bill Dyson, c. 1899

Unknown artist Publisher Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882, page 2

Image

Ruby, Norman, Pearl, Percy, Reg, Bill Dyson and Mary in Creswick garden

Ruby, Norman, Pearl, Percy, Reg, Bill Dyson and Mary in Creswick garden, c. 1899

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Melodrama..., c. 1900

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882, 1882

Portrait, engravings on paper

Purchased 2009

Naomi Hobson

Artists and Collectives

Multidisciplinary artist Naomi Hobson, of the Kaantju language group and Patta skin group, after the Death Adder snake, lives and works on Country in Coen, Cape York Peninsula addressing powerful links between Country and identity.

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

Booklet commemorating the life of Rose Grainger, 1922 reproduced by Percy Grainger

A boy’s best friend is his mother

It's Complicated

Dearest Mummy

Alice Simpson

Alice Simpson, née Want was one of nine children of Randolph and Harriette Want, who married in Sydney in 1839.

1 portrait in the collection

Sahlan Hayes

Born in the United Kingdom, Sahlan Hayes lived with his family in the USA, New Zealand and the United Kingdom before settling in Australia.

9 portraits in the collection

Artists and Collectives

General content

Arts Project Australia, Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, ‘stArts with D’ Performance Ensemble, Abdul Abdullah, Alison Alder, Amrita Hepi, Atong Atem, Christopher Bassi, Kate Beynon, Mia Boe, Baby Guerrilla, Tarryn Gill, Julie Gough, Naomi Hobson, Deborah Kelly, Fiona McMonagle, Angelica Mesiti, Dylan Mooney, Nell, Sally Smart, Vipoo Srivilasa, Latai Taumoepeau and Kaylene Whiskey.

Gordon Furlee Brown

Gordon Furlee Brown, whose career is not documented in standard texts on Australian photography or art, exhibited in the Victorian Salon of Photography in 1931.

3 portraits in the collection

Nine square images of previous winners of the National Photographic Portrait Prize

Australian Athletes in Focus

Clem, George, David, Alfie and Russell Sands were members of one of Australia's most famous sporting families.

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.

Henry Lawson, c. 1919

Lionel Lindsay

Portrait, pencil, charcoal, pen and ink on paper

Purchased 2010

Herb Elliott AC MBE

Ben Hall and his gang outdone, 6 February 1865

James Herbert 'Herb' Elliott AC MBE (b. 1938), runner, won the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the Rome Olympics in 1960.

1 portrait in the collection

Percy, Reginald, Monty and George Faithfull, undated by Henry Dorner. Image courtesy the National Museum of Australia.

An affray which deserves particular mention

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on card

Bushranger Ben Hall and his cronies held around 40 people hostage in a pub north-west of Goulburn, telling their captives ‘don’t be alarmed; we only came here for a bit of fun’.

Ada Crossley, c. 1900

Rotary Photo Company Ltd

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Roger Neill 2009

Lionel Lindsay

Sir Lionel Lindsay (1874-1961), graphic artist, was the brother of Norman, Percy, Daryl and Ruby Lindsay and shared with his siblings an early obsession with drawing and printmaking.

5 portraits in the collection

Edward Telford Simpson

Portrait, watercolour and bodycolour on cardboard

Edward Telford Simpson (1889-1965), Alice's grandson, was born the only son of Edward Percy Simpson and his wife Anne.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, 1909

Bess Norriss Tait

Purchased with funds provided by Barbara and Jim Higgins 2010

Ready , set... shoot

Magazine article by Christine Clark, 2006

The exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus offers various interpretations of sporting men and women by five Australian photographers.

Walter Withers

Walter Withers (1854-1914), painter, interior designer and teacher, trained at the Royal Academy in London before coming to Australia at the end of 1882.

1 portrait in the collection

Max Meldrum, c. 1937

Max Dupain OBE

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

Dave Sands, c. 1940s

Purchased 2011

William Macleod

William Macleod, artist and magazine proprietor, attended the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts as a young teenager and saw his first illustration published in 1866.

4 portraits in the collection

Charles Troedel

Charles Troedel (1835-1906), born in Hamburg, was working in Norway when he was headhunted by AW Schuhkrafft, a Melbourne printer who seeking European craftsmen.

1 portrait in the collection

Jenny Howard

Jenny Howard née Daisy Blowes (1902-1996), stage performer, made her name in her native England as ‘the poor man’s Gracie Fields’, recording covers of Fields’s songs for a cut-price label and impersonating the star onstage.

1 portrait in the collection

Norman Lindsay, 1936

Max Dupain OBE

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

Australian Tapestry Workshop

The Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) was established in 1976, following two years of planning and research on the part of its founding patrons, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Lady Joyce Delacombe.

2 portraits in the collection

Richard Roxburgh

Richard Roxburgh (b. 1962), actor, completed an economics degree at the Australian National University before gaining a place at NIDA on his second attempt.

2 portraits in the collection

The Australian Cricket Team 1882

The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.

1 portrait in the collection

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

Ada Jemima Crossley

Ada Jemima Crossley (1874–1929), singer, was one of several Australian-born divas to achieve an international reputation in the late nineteenth century.

2 portraits in the collection

Trumble and Borthwick families (Mum front right, Angus smallest), ca. 1968

Humdinger

NPPP 2020 exhibition essay

At a meeting by teleconference of the National Portrait Gallery Foundation last week, I found myself reporting that our forthcoming exhibition So Fine is going to be “a humdinger,” whereupon Tim Fairfax chuckled and said that he hadn’t heard that expression for years.

Writing on the Wall, 2019 Dr Christian Thompson AO

To arrive at hope

General content

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

Announcing... Portrait23: Identity

15 November 2022

Media

In this major new exhibition marking the National Portrait Gallery’s third decade, 23 Australian artists and collectives have been invited to create portraits without constraints or boundaries.

Bloodlines

Magazine article by Michelle Fracaro, 2004

Michelle Fracaro describes Lionel Lindsay's woodcut The Jester (self-portrait).

Max Dupain

The Vintage Years

Previous exhibition, 2003

During his long and distinguished career Max Dupain took thousands of photographs of people

Small worlds

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Bess Norriss Tait created miniature watercolour portraits full of character and life.

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.

Primed

Some Prime Ministers

Previous exhibition, 2019

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

Rupert Bunny

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864–1947) was one of the most celebrated Australian expatriate artists of his generation, achieving a degree of success in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s that was unmatched by his peers.

3 portraits in the collection

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.

The story of us

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.

Seeing stars

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour explores photographic depictions of Aboriginal sportsmen including Lionel Rose, Dave Sands, Jerry Jerome and Douglas Nicholls.

The eye and the heart

Magazine article by Emeritus Professor Jaynie Anderson AM, 2015

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

Sitter still

Jaynie Anderson reflects on her experience as sitter for Reshid Bey’s 1962 portrait.

Be bold

Magazine article by Katherine Russell, 2007

The name of Florence Broadhurst, one of Australia’s most significant wallpaper and textile designers, is now firmly cemented in the canon of Australian art and design.

Finest quality

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of Chinese-Australian businessman and philanthropist Quong Tart.

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.

See through me

Magazine article by Penelope Grist and Rebecca Ray, 2022

Penelope Grist and Rebecca Ray talk to the artists in Portrait23: Identity about transcending modes of portraiture.

Australia’s great internationalists

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.

Mugshots

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, 1885-86 by
John Singer Sargent

A feast of friends

Magazine article by Richard Ormond, 2015

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

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

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush