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Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
James Freeman, who is credited with bringing the wet-plate photographic process to New South Wales, arrived in Sydney in 1854 to join his brother William, who had arrived the year before.
9 portraits in the collection
Cathy Freeman OAM (b. 1973) won the 400m Olympic Gold medal in front of her home crowd in Sydney in 2000 in one of the all-time great Australian sporting moments.
5 portraits in the collection
Derek Freeman (1916–2001) was an anthropologist. Born in New Zealand, he gained his doctorate from Cambridge before moving to Canberra in 1955 to work at the Australian National University.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Caird and Melbourne Herald Sun 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 1999
Gift of the artists 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018
Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018
Frances Samuel (1818-c. 1898) was a member of one of early Sydney's most significant Jewish settler families.
1 portrait in the collection
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 Samuel Wilson was elected to the British House of Commons in 1886.
1 portrait in the collection
Samuel Bellin, printmaker and engraver, trained in England under James Basire the Younger before travelling to Rome, where he honed his drafting skills and made the acquaintance of JMW Turner and other artists.
2 portraits in the collection
Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools as a seventeen year-old in 1774 and exhibited at the Academy regularly from this time until 1804.
2 portraits in the collection
Samuel Metford was born in Glastonbury, into a Quaker family. In England he came to specialise in full-length silhouette likenesses, cut from black paper and embellished with gold and white paint.
1 portrait in the collection
Samuel 'Sammy' Woods (1867-1931), cricketer, is one of only five men to have played Tests for both Australia and England.
1 portrait in the collection
The Hon Sir Saul Samuel Bart KCMG CB (1820-1900), merchant, politician, company director and landowner, was the first Jewish legislator in New South Wales and the first Jew to become a minister of the Crown.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2008
Sir Samuel Walter Griffith (1845-1920), chief justice and premier, was born in Wales and came to Australia aged eight with his minister father and family.A top student, at the University of Sydney Griffith excelled at classics and mathematics; the Mort scholarship enabled him to travel to Europe.
2 portraits in the collection
Henry Sadd was born in London and exhibited engravings there before emigrating to the USA some time around 1840.
8 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2014
Purchased 2011
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
The National Portrait Gallery acquired a beguiling silhouette group portrait by Samuel Metford, an English artist who spent periods of his working life in America.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2012
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2015
Gift of the artist 2001
Dawn Fraser, Lionel Rose, Shane Gould and Cathy Freeman
John Lucas started his career as an apprentice to the engraver Samuel William Reynolds.
1 portrait in the collection
Peter O'Shaughnessy (1923-2013), actor and producer, has produced many Australian plays and acted the major Shakespearian tragic roles both in Australia and overseas.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Reginald Henry Jerrold-Nathan (1889-1979) arrived in Australia from London in 1924, having studied under John Singer Sargent and William Orpen at the Royal Academy, where he was awarded a medal for portrait painting.
2 portraits in the collection
Samuel Calvert studied in his native London with his father, engraver Edward Calvert, before emigrating to Australia in 1848.
1 portrait in the collection
Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.
Purchased 2015
Keep it in the family
Edmund Edgar (1804–1854), engraver and portrait painter, was convicted of robbery in London in 1825 and sentenced to transportation for life.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Karin Catt grew up in Newcastle, where she began taking photographs of touring bands while a schoolgirl, and also in London and Hong Kong.
9 portraits in the collection
George Garrard ARA, born in London, trained under the animal painter Sawrey Gilpin and enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools at the end of 1778.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2008
Bart Willoughby (b. 1960) is a Pitjantjantjara and Mirning singer/songwriter who is one of the Stolen Generations.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of Dr J J C Bradfield 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
For richer, for poorer
George Richmond, son of the miniature painter Thomas Richmond, grew up in London, took early artistic instruction from his father and enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001
Sir Francis Forbes (1784–1841) was the first chief justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2002
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
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Kerrie Lester (1953–2016) became well-known as a portraitist for her playful, textured, highly coloured works that appeared regularly in the Archibald and Portia Geach exhibitions of the late 1980s and the 1990s.
6 portraits in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by donors 2006
Gift of Merran Samuel (nee Connor) 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Max Dupain OBE (1911–1992) was a pioneering modernist photographer.
98 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 2004
Magazines are the portrait galleries of the 90s... Glossy is about magazines. The exhibition presents the work of eight photographers, Australian by birth or long-term residency, who are producing portraits for publication in magazines around the world.
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The exhibition Depth of Field displays a selection of portrait photographs that reflect the strength and diversity of Australian achievement.
Gift of the artists 2003
Gift of the artists 2003
Gift of the artists 2003
When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
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.
Omai (Mai) (c. 1750-1778), the first Polynesian to visit Britain, was a young man of middling social standing who volunteered to sail from Huahine to England with Captain Furneaux on the Adventure (the ship accompanying James Cook's Resolution on Cook's second voyage of discovery (1772-1775).
2 portraits in the collection
John Williams (1796-1839), missionary, began his working life in 1810, apprenticed to an ironmonger, but in 1814 he underwent an Evangelical conversion and became a member of the Tabernacle Church (Calvinistic Methodist).
1 portrait in the collection
When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Richard 'Darby' McCarthy OAM (1945–2020), former jockey who rode in three Melbourne Cups and won more than 1000 races, is a proud descendant of the Mithaka and Goongurri people of south-west and central Queensland.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Leo Christie 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
George William Perry (1824–1900) was born in London and arrived in Victoria via South Africa around 1852.
2 portraits in the collection
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
John Bradfield (1867-1943), engineer, was a key figure in the development of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and inner city transport network.
1 portrait in the collection
Hilary McPhee AO (b. 1941), writer and editor, began her career at Meanjin before starting a small magazine, Theatre.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery welcomes Angus Trumble
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
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’.
Richard Read junior arrived in Sydney from his native London in November 1819.
2 portraits in the collection
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery
Arthur Thomas 'A T' Woodward (1865–1943), painter and art scholar, was born in Birmingham, England.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Bradley Vincent considers Samuel Hodge’s use of the archive to create a queer vernacular of portraiture.
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.
Australian artist Shaun Gladwell discusses his portraits of champion athletes.
Purchased 2014
In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Purchased 2018
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.
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.
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.
Talma Studios opened in Sydney in March 1899 in a George Street premises next door to the GPO.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.
Tony Curran ponders whether our phones can change the course of painting.
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.
Emma Kindred examines fashion as a representation of self and social ritual in 19th-century portraiture.
In recent years I have become fascinated by the so-called Sydney Cove Medallion (1789), a work of art that bridges the 10,000-mile gap between the newly established penal settlement at Port Jackson and the beating heart of Enlightenment England.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Joanna Gilmour delves into a collection display that celebrates the immediacy and potency of drawing as an art form in its own right.
Stephen Valambras Graham traverses the intriguing socio-political terrain behind two iconic First Nations portraits of the 1850s.
Harold Cazneaux's portraits of influential Sydneysiders included Margaret Preston and Ethel Turner, both important figures in the development of ideas about Australian identity and culture.
All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War exhibition co-curators Dr Anne Sanders and Dr Christopher Chapman reflect on the evolution of the Gallery’s Anzac Centenary exhibition.
Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
Michael Desmond in conversation with University of Houston professor of philosophy Cynthia Freeland.
Penelope Grist explores the photographic instinct of four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist Julian Kingma.
Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.
Joanna Gilmour explores the stories behind the ninteenth-century carte de visites of bushrangers Frank Gardiner and Fred Lowry.
Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.
Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
The best horror stories are real. A flea sinks its proboscis into the skin of a sick black rat, feeds on its blood, and ingests lethally multiplying bacteria.
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.
Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.
Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.
Joanna Gilmour explores the 1790 portrait of William Bligh by Robert Dodd.
Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.
The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.
Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
At first glance, this small watercolour group portrait of her two sons and four daughters by Maria Caroline Brownrigg (d. 1880) may seem prosaic, even hesitant
Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.