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Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (1844–1900) was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria.

4 portraits in the collection

H.R.H. The Prince Arthur, 1860

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Prince Albert, 1860

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased 2020

Prince Arthur, 1860

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph, hand coloured on card

Purchased 2020

H.R.H. The Prince Alfred, 1860

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

HRH Prince Alfred, c. 1868

an unknown artist

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on laid on paper with printed boarder

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

Prince Alfred, 1860

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh and Suite in Mining Costume after descending the Band of Hope Gold Mine, Ballarat, Australia

H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh and Suite in Mining Costume after descending the Band of Hope Gold Mine, Ballarat, Australia, 1867

Roberts Brothers, Ballarat

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Queen Victoria in mourning, with a portrait of Prince Albert

Queen Victoria in mourning, with a portrait of Prince Albert, c. 1862

an unknown artist

Portrait, lithograph in carte de visite format on paper on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

His Royal Highness Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, Duke of Gloucester (Governor General of Australia)

His Royal Highness Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, Duke of Gloucester (Governor General of Australia), 1943-1944

Charles Wheeler

Portrait, coloured chalk with black ink highlight on artist board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019

Philip Hunter

Philip Hunter (1958-2017), painter, studied art in Melbourne before holding his first solo exhibition there in 1982.

1 portrait in the collection

Philip Flood AO

Former Australian diplomat and public servant Philip Flood AO (b. 1935) gained a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) degree at the University of Sydney before joining the Australian Government's Department of External Affairs in 1958.

1 portrait in the collection

Philip Williams

During 46 years as a journalist, Philip Williams (b. 1957) covered the world’s biggest news events.

1 portrait in the collection

Not so remote, 2014

by Philip Myers

Philip Gidley King

by Philip Hutchison Barry

Philip Gidley King (1758-1808), naval officer and governor, joined the navy in late 1770 and served in the East Indies and American waters.

1 portrait in the collection

Douglas, 2009

Philip Flood AO, 2020

Sean Hutton

Gift of Philip and Carole Flood 2021

Philip Hunter, 2004

Julian Kingma

Portrait, oil crayon and collage of printed magazine cuttings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

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

Amanda King

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Portrait of Philip Williams, 2019

Rick Amor

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

Return, 2016

by Philip Myers

Return (Balang T.E. Lewis), 2016

Philip Myers

William Skelton after J. Wright

Gift of the artist 2019

Lieutenant King, 1789

Portrait, engraving on paper

Purchased 2010

The Boys Next Door, 1978

Michel Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Philip Noyce on the set of 'Heatwave', Sydney

Philip Noyce on the set of 'Heatwave', Sydney, 1981 (printed 2000)

David Moore

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

Breakfast with bats, 2017

by Douglas Philip Gimesy

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, c. 1863

John & Charles Watkins

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who subsequently became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

4 portraits in the collection

Her Majesty, The Queen, Elizabeth II (Blue), 2001

Polly Borland

Purchased 2021

HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2001

Polly Borland

Purchased 2002

William Owen

Magazine article by Rick Amor, 2021

William Owen moved to London from his native Shropshire in 1786 and was apprenticed for seven years to the coach-painter Charles Catton.

1 portrait in the collection

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022)

9 September 2022

Media

The National Portrait Gallery is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Throughout her 70-year reign, Her Majesty represented graciousness, humanity and stability during times of enormous social change.

Observation point

While visiting the National Portrait Gallery I noticed the absence of paintings of journalists.

Pro Hart & Associates, 2004

Nick Young

Portrait, coloured chalk on artist board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

Lovely Lillie and Dirty Bertie

Lust

Royal romps: illicit liaisons

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II)

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II), 1942-1943

Charles Wheeler

Purchased 2019

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (full-length study)

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (full-length study), 2005

Jiawei Shen

Portrait, print on transparency film

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

Study for commissioned portrait, "Equation of life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton", 2016

Evert Ploeg

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with the assistance of funds provided by Janet Whiting AM, Philip Lukies and Antonia Syme 2016

Peter Allen, 1980

William Yang

Purchased 2003

Ralph Heimans AM

Sydney-based painter Ralph Heimans AM (b. 1970) is one of the world's foremost contemporary portraitists, having created a body of work that has expanded and redefined the possibilities of what is sometimes perceived as an inflexibly traditional genre.

19 portraits in the collection

The Long Awaited, 2008 by Patricia Piccinini

Empathy

More about In the flesh

Patricia Piccinini places empathy at the heart of her practice. The tenderness of the moment dominates.

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (profile head study), 2005

Jiawei Shen

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

In another land

Geoff Harvey

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

Anne Sanders writes about the exhibitions Victoria & Albert: Art & Love on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the retrospective of Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Donors

$10,000 - $49,999

John Gollings

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

John Raphael Smith

John Raphael Smith worked in various drapery establishments and painted miniatures before turning to engraving in London.

1 portrait in the collection

Rob Tuckwell

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Rob Tuckwell is a Sydney based photographer with a specialisation in architectural photography.

3 portraits 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.

Very fine and very like

When did notions of very fine and very like become separate qualities of a portrait? And what happens to 'very like' in the age of photographic portraiture?

John Young

John Young, mezzotint engraver, studied under Valentine Green then worked with several of the painters who collaborated with Green, notably Benjamin West, John Hoppner and Johann Gerhard Huck.

1 portrait in the collection

Maria Kozic

Maria Kozic (b. 1957), painter and sculptor, and Philip Brophy (b. 1959), film director, composer, performer and curator, collaborated in the avant-garde performance/happening group ??? (spoken as tsk tsk tsk) and other projects between 1977 and the mid-1980s.

1 portrait in the collection

Molly Meldrum

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

David Ramsey McNicoll CBE

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

David Ramsay McNicoll CBE (1914-2000) was editor-in-chief of Sir Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press from 1953 to 1972, and wrote an immensely popular column for the Bulletin magazine from 1972 to 1999.

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.

Phillip Brophy

Previous exhibition, 2018

1 portrait in the collection

Carte-o-mania!

Drawn from the NPG’s burgeoning collection of cartes de visite, Carte-o-mania! celebrates the wit, style and substance of the pocket-sized portraits that were taken and collected like crazy in post-goldrush Australia.

Basil P. Bressler

Basil Philip Bressler, who died in 2000, was a surveyor with an amateur interest in art and music.

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

Thinking of England

Passion

Truly, madly, deeply

Peter Russell-Clarke

Peter Russell-Clarke, cook, started his career as a freelance cartoonist, working for advertising agencies in Australia and overseas.

1 portrait in the collection

Jimmy Wululu

Jimmy Wululu (1936-2005) was a Gupapuyngu (Yolgnu) painter and sculptor.

1 portrait in the collection

Chad Morgan, Sunshine Coast, Qld, 2004

John Elliott

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Tuisko Turso Seppelt

Portrait, charcoal and pastel on paper

Tuisko Turso (‘TT’) Seppelt (1891-1957) was Victorian manager of the Seppelt wine company from 1917.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, 2001

Jeffrey Smart AO

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 2002

Self portrait, 2004

Peter Russell-Clarke

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Australian Princess

Magazine article by Katherine Russell, 2005

The full-length portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark by artist Jiawei Shen, has become a destination piece for visitors.

Reginald Gray

Reginald Gray (1930–2013) was a professional portraitist. Born in Dublin, he studied at the National College of Art and Design, and became a designer for the Pike and Gate Theatres in Dublin and the Lyric Theatre in London.

1 portrait in the collection

Phillip Gudthaykudthay

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

David Jones

David Jones (1793-1873), merchant, began his retail career in Pembrokeshire and London before emigrating to Sydney via Hobart.

1 portrait in the collection

Lord George Stuart, 9th Seigneur of Aubigny

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Portrait, oil on composition board

Self portrait in green hues, c. 1962

Roland Wakelin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Philip Bacon AM 2001
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Self portrait with scarf, c. 1930s

Rupert Bunny

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

Samuel Woolf

Samuel Johnson Woolf, American painter, lithographer and illustrator, was born in New York City and named after the English essayist Samuel Johnson.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir George Hayter

Sir George Hayter (1792-1871), English portrait and historical painter, studied briefly at the Royal Academy Schools as a teenager, running away to sea before returning to assist his father, an artist who tutored Princess Charlotte.

1 portrait in the collection

Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and Electress Palatine

Robert Peake the Elder

Magazine article by Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby, 2018

HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, 2006 Ralph Heimans AM

Dane reign

Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.

Albert Namatjira, 1958

Sir William Dargie CBE

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC and with the assistance of Philip Bacon Galleries 2000

Charles Kean

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

Charles Kean (1811-1868), actor, threw in his Eton education when his mother was deserted by his penniless father, the tragedian Edmund Kean.

1 portrait in the collection

The spirit of the gift

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers celebrates the support given to the Gallery by Gordon and Marilyn Darling.

George Rose, 1811

Giovanni Vendramini, T Cadell & W Davies after William Evans, Sir William Beechey

Portrait, engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Chad Morgan OAM

Chadwick William Morgan OAM (b.1933) has been performing comic country songs for more than 60 years.

2 portraits in the collection

Queen Victoria

Victoria (1819–1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901.

8 portraits in the collection

John Sherwin

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

John Keyse Sherwin, draughtsman and engraver, worked as a cutter of ships' bolts until 1769, when one of his drawings was awarded a silver medal at the Society of Arts.

1 portrait in the collection

Jimmy Wululu, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Purchased 2005

Sir Ivor Hele

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

Sir Ivor Hele (1912–1993) was born in Adelaide and studied art at Prince Alfred College and the South Australian School of Arts and, later, in Paris and Munich.

3 portraits in the collection

Sir George Ferguson Bowen, c. 1873

Bardwell's Royal Studio

Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Jacques Miller AC

Jacques Miller AC (b. 1931), immunologist, spent his early childhood in Shanghai and Lausanne before coming to Sydney with his parents at the age of ten.

2 portraits in the collection

Julian Kingma

Julian Kingma (b. 1968), photographer, began his career in 1988 as a cadet for the Herald newspaper in Melbourne, and later worked for the Sunday Age as Head Features Photographer.

11 portraits in the collection

Her Majesty, 1860

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased 2020

Celebrity cutpurse

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2010

Grace Carroll discusses the portrait of the late-eighteenth century gentleman pickpocket George Barrington.

Phillip Gudthaykudthay, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Purchased 2005

James T. Donovan, 1892

Tom Roberts

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Purchased 2015

Julian Rossi Ashton, 1933

Eric Wilson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Philip Bacon AM 2012

Walter Preston

Walter Preston, engraver and convict, came to New South Wales aboard the Guildford in 1812.

1 portrait in the collection

Queen Mary

George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.

3 portraits in the collection

King George V

George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.

4 portraits in the collection

Jacques Miller, 2012

Dave Tacon

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Glenn Murcutt AO

Glenn Murcutt AO (b. 1936), architect, received the world's highest architectural honour when he was awarded the Pritzker Prize in April 2002.

4 portraits in the collection

Dr Charlie Teo operating on my brain

Filippa Buttitta

Cressida Campbell AM

Cressida Campbell AM (b. 1960), artist, has worked for decades in a studio at her home in Bronte, Sydney.

2 portraits in the collection

Joseph Darling

Adam Chang (Hong Jun Zhang)

Joseph Darling (1870–1946) took up cricket in earnest while a student at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide and was fifteen when he set a new record for the highest innings (252) scored in South Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Charles Teo, 2012

Gift of Eleonora Triguboff 2013

2013-14 Acquisition Fund

London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company

This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.

Sir Oswald Brierly, c. 1870

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Johann Zoffany

Johann Zoffany, painter of portraits and conversation pieces, grew up in the court of the Prince von Thurn und Taxis in Germany, where his father was employed.

1 portrait in the collection

Bungaree

Portrait, albumen photograph on cabinet card

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

Joe Darling (Joseph Darling, member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team), 1896

H Parker Rolfe

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014

John Cobley

John Cobley (1914-1989), doctor, historian and television host, studied at State schools, won a scholarship to the University of Sydney and graduated in medicine and science in 1937.

1 portrait in the collection

Icons Syndicate

Lists alphabetically

Charles Teo AM

Charles Teo AM (b. 1957) is a neurosurgeon. Born in Sydney, where he attended Scots College and graduated in medicine and surgery from the University of New South Wales, he worked for some years at the Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, Texas and was Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas.

1 portrait in the collection

Cressida Campbell, 2001

Greg Weight

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

Executive

Our team

National Portrait Gallery Director Bree Pickering leads the executive team.

Robert Rooney

A Ninetieth Birthday Tribute

Robert Rooney (1937-2017), painter, conceptual artist and photographer, studied at Swinburne Technical college from 1954 to 1957.

17 portraits in the collection

Sir William Dargie

Previous exhibition, 2002

As a tribute to Sir William Dargie's singular contribution to Australian art and cultural institutions, and on the occasion of his birthday, The Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery will mount exhibitions of his work between May and October

Portrait 68

Summer 2022/23

Magazine

Rebecca Ray on Robert Fielding’s Mayatjara series, Jennifer Higgie on Alice Neel, Elspeth Pitt chats with Yvette Coppersmith, Vincent Fantauzzo on virtual sittings with Hugh Jackman and more.

Small Holdings (The Earl Carrington Baron Charles Robert Carrington)

Charles Robert Wynn-Carrington

Magazine article by Brett Canét-Gibson, 2018

Charles Robert Wynn-Carrington (1843–1928), 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire, landowner and Liberal politician, was governor of New South Wales in the late 1880s.

2 portraits in the collection

The Life of Riley, 2014 by Brett Canet-Gibson

Observation Point

Portrait photography, by definition, is a collaboration. It is also the grandest of lies masquerading as the ultimate truth.

Gideon Obarzanek

The Illustrated London News after Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant

Gideon Obarzanek (b. 1966), choreographer, director and curator, spent his early life in Israel, attended school in Melbourne and won a place at the Australian Ballet School, choreographing his first piece there in 1987.

1 portrait in the collection

Queen Victoria, 1901

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Donald Friend

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Donald Friend (1915-1989), painter, writer and diarist, studied at the RAS and Dattilo-Rubbo’s school in Sydney before spending 1935 and 1936 at the Westminster School in London.

2 portraits in the collection

Robert Rooney, self portrait December 1978, 1978 (printed 2012)

Robert Rooney

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

John Vickery

John Vickery (1906-1983), illustrator, designer and painter was the only Australian to be part of the New York School in 1960s which includes painters such as Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell and Willem de Kooning.

1 portrait in the collection

Supporters

$5,000 - $9,999

Previous exhibition, 2006

Portraits for Posterity

Drawn from some of the many donations made to the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Portraits for Posterity pays homage both to the remarkable (and varied) group of Australians who are portrayed in the portraits and the generosity of the many donors who have presented them to the Gallery.

Equation of a life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton

Equation of a life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton, 2016

Evert Ploeg

Portrait, oil on linen

Commissioned with the assistance of funds provided by Janet Whiting AM, Philip Lukies and Antonia Syme 2016

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.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, 1899 by Carl Pietzner

The Archduke

The immediate chain of events that led to the outbreak of the First World War began 100 years ago on June 28.

David Lloyd Jones

David Lloyd Jones (1931–1961) was the great-grandson of the original David Jones – who founded the eponymous department store in Sydney in 1838 – and the eldest son of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (1878–1958), who was chairman of David Jones Ltd from 1920 until his death.

1 portrait in the collection

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

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

David Jones, 1853

Henry Robinson Smith

Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Jane Mander Jones, 1853

Henry Robinson Smith

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Donald Friend, 1987

Greg Weight

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

Michael Hutchence, 1997

Harry Borden

Portrait, ink and charcoal on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Donald Friend at Owl Creek, 1983

Lawrence Daws

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lawrence Daws 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

OBEY

Shepard Fairey Posters

Previous exhibition, 2009

Shepard Fairey is best known for his iconic poster Obama/Hope which he made in support of Barack Obama for the 2008 US election.

All you can eat

Magazine article by Lauren Dalla, 2003

In February 2003 the National Portrait Gallery Circle of Friends brought Sir Robert Strong to Australia to present a series of lectures entitled The Artists & The Banquet- A History of Dining, which focused on the links between gardens and table decoration from the Renaissance to the Victorian Era.

Glossy 2

Faces, Magazines, Now

Previous exhibition, 2005

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.

A gift from the heart

Magazine article by Lauren Dalla, 2003

Lauren Dalla examines the life of Basil Bressler, the art patron responsible for one of the NPG's most important bequests.

May Emmeline Wirth

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite

May Emmeline Wirth (1894–1978), circus performer, was once described as the ‘greatest lady bareback rider of all time’.

1 portrait in the collection

Right Rev Dr Lawrence Bonaventure Sheil OSF

Right Rev Dr Lawrence Bonaventure Sheil OSF, c. 1872

Bardwell's Royal Studio

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

James Donovan

James T Donovan (1861–1922), journalist, Catholic historian and amateur singer, was born into an Irish Catholic family in Sydney and grew up in Womerah Avenue, Darlinghurst.

1 portrait in the collection

Nicholas Harding

Nicholas Harding (1956–2022) was one of Australia's most highly regarded artists, known for his portraits and drawings, and his light-filled, vigorously painted images of the bush and the coast.

5 portraits in the collection

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

Sir Oswald Brierly

Sir Oswald Brierly (1817–1894), marine painter and adventurer, studied art, naval architecture and navigation in England before his fascination with seafaring caused him to sign up as staff artist on the Wanderer – a schooner owned by entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd, who was about to embark on a round-the-world trip.

1 portrait in the collection

Grateful admiration and brotherly love

Magazine article by Polly Borland, 2022

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.

Portrait story

Photographer Polly Borland on capturing Queen Elizabeth II.

Annual Appeal

Listed by year

Previous exhibition, 2005

Clifton Pugh

Australians

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.

Captain W Kinghorne, 1834

Thomas James Lempriere

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

The 1780s to the 1840s

Mo and beard timeline

Eighteenth century men differed from those of the preceding centuries in their preference for beardlessness.

Adrian Rawlins

Adrian Rawlins (1939-2001), poet, performer and promoter, grew up in a Jewish household in Caulfield and St Kilda.

1 portrait in the collection

Rosina Carandini, mid 1860s

Charles Hewitt

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

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.

Thomas Woolner

Portrait, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Thomas Woolner, sculptor, studied first with the brothers Henry and William Behnes, painter and sculptor respectively, and later at the Royal Academy, at which he was to become professor of sculpture in his fifties.

5 portraits in the collection

Paul Capsis, 2004

Esther Erlich

Gift of the artist 2017

2015-17 Acquisition Fund

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite photograph

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.

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist, c. 1870

James E. Bray

Purchased 2017

2020 Annual Appeal

In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.

Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, c. 1962

Victor Greenhalgh

Portrait, cast bronze

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

Fannie Carandini, mid 1860s

Charles Hewitt

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

Previous exhibition, 2006

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

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.

Elegance in exile

Portrait drawings from colonial Australia

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.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009

Previous exhibition, 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.

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

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

Cocky McGrath

Self Portraits in Australia

The long life and few words of a vice-regal cockatoo

To Look Within

Previous exhibition, 2004

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

Nicholas Chevalier, c. 1867

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Magazine article by Tony Curran, 2015

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

As long as you're here, 2013 by Tony Curran

Touchy touchy

Tony Curran ponders whether our phones can change the course of painting.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

8 March 2018

Archived media releases 2018

Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Previous exhibition, 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.

Masters of Fare

Chefs, winemakers, providores

Previous exhibition, 2004

Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores celebrates men and women who have championed the unique culinary characteristics and produce of Australia, enriching our lives with new ideas and new flavours over the past forty years.

Nicholas Harding

28 Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2017

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.

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.

Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children, 1940

The incomparable Beaton

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

To accompany the exhibition Cecil Beaton: Portraits, held at the NPG in 2005, this article is drawn from Hugo Vickers's authorised biography, Cecil Beaton (1985).

Portfolio of 54 portraits compiled by Queen Victoria, 1859–1861 by John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Camille Silvy, Frances Day and William Bambridge

Queen of cartes

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

Previous exhibition, 2023

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.

First Ladies

Significant Australian Women 1913–2013

Previous exhibition, 2013

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

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.

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.

On the road again

Magazine article by Dr Deborah Hill, 2017

Deborah Hill talks figures with character, as the National Portrait Gallery touring exhibitions program welcomes its millionth visitor.

Rupert Bunny

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

Mexico from the Palace painted by ‘Maximilian Emperor'

Empirical art

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2019

Several years ago I came across this curious painting on the racks in a distant, dusty corner of the store room in the basement of the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. Since then the mystery surrounding it has never been far from my mind.

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

The Royal she

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.

Big shots

Magazine article by Djon Mundine OAM, 2017

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

Karl Robert, Count Nesselrode, 1818 by Sir Thomas Lawrence

The Lawrence lustre

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2019

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

2022 Annual Appeal

In 2022 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Mayatjara by Robert Fielding, a series of 24 photographs of Elders of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara community.

Queen Victoria

Last Sunday I had the privilege of appearing at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in conversation with Julia Baird. The subject of our session was Julia’s recent biography, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Magazine article by Peter Jeffrey, 2016

Hottie's Snifter to port

Peter Jeffrey trips the hound nostalgic.

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.

Miles from nowhere, 2008 (printed 2014) from the Games of consequence series 2008 Polixeni Papapetrou

Mother’s muse

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2020

Inga Walton traces the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, revealed in the NGV’s summer retrospective.

Why do painted portraits still matter?

Magazine article by Sandy Nairne, 2006

Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.

The God-shaped hole

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

Exploring the photographs of Martin Schoeller, Michael Desmond delves into the uneasy pact that exists between celebrity and the camera.

Noel McKenna

Explore The Popular Pet Show

It’s a matter beyond dispute that in the entire history of Australian art, it’s Noel McKenna who’s painted the liveliest rendition of the head of a Chihuahua.

Giving and getting

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.

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.

Unheroic Materialism: little harmless fragments of memory and association: a portrait of Angus Trumble, 2019 Evert Ploeg

The last word

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2022

David Hansen’s tribute to his close friend, prince of words and former National Portrait Gallery director, the late Angus Trumble.

A sketch for some portraits

Magazine article by Judith Pugh, 2005

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

Portrait of an English Woman c. 1532-5 (detail)

A new perspective

Magazine article by Celina Fox, 2006

An exhibition devoted to Hans Holbein's English commissions shows the portraitist bringing across the Channel new technical developments in art - with a dazzling facility.

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

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.

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.

Getting a head

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2015

Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.

Generous Janice

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

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

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.

Sunset in the drawing room at Chesney Wold by Hablot Knight Brown

Portraiture in a Bleak House

It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.

Installation of ‘Face to Face: The New Normal’ at Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, 2021 Vic McEwan

Facing the feeling

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2015

Penelope Grist explores the interplay between medicine and portraiture in Vic McEwan’s Face to Face: The New Normal.

In the flesh

An exhibition of humanness in ten themes by Penelope Grist.

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.

Poison pen

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

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

Charlie's angles

Magazine article by Stephen Phillips, 2017

Stephen Phillips talks to neurosurgeon Charlie Teo about his practice, perspectives and the anatomy of hope.

Donated duo

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the gift of two striking paintings by the Australian artist Ken Done AM.

The play’s the thing

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2016

Penelope Grist charts an immersive path through Stuart Spence’s photography.

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

All the way with K of K

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

Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills, 1932 by Napier Waller

Enigma

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2015

Grace Carroll contemplates the curious case of Christian Waller.

The bright-eyed Mariner

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

A new colonial portrait brings a zealous captain near.

No Laughing Matter

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2002

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

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.

Lovers of light

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

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

Albert Jonas and John Xiniwe of The African Choir, 1891 London Stereoscopic Co.

Back in black

Magazine article by Krysia Kitch, 2017

Krysia Kitch reviews black chronicles at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Earth to earth

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses the recent gift of works by David Campbell.

Kristin Headlam

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Basil grew into a speckled beauty – a long-legged leaper and an exceptionally vocal dog, with a great register of sounds, ascending in shock value from a whimper to a growl to a bark to a yelp that’s a violation of the ears.

Sibly irresistible

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2019

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

Some prime ministers

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2022

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

Virginia Woolf, 1902 George Charles Beresford

Love my way

Inga Walton delves into the bohemian group of artists and writers who used each other as muses and transformed British culture.

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.

Louise Lovely feeding gulls in a park, 1969 Unknown photographer

Jewelled nights

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2017

Anne Sanders celebrates the cinematic union of two pioneering australian women.

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.

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.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay

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

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits