Search / thomas hill

Henry Samuel Sadd, Fergusson & Mitchell, Melbourne after Thomas Adams Hill

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

William John Wills, 2nd in command of the Victorian Expedition

William John Wills, 2nd in command of the Victorian Expedition, 1860-1861

Henry Samuel Sadd, Fergusson & Mitchell, Melbourne after Thomas Adams Hill

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007

Robert O'Hara Burke, Leader of the Victorian Expedition

Robert O'Hara Burke, Leader of the Victorian Expedition, 1860-1861

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007

Clem Hill

Clem Hill (1877–1945) was one of sixteen children and born into a notable Adelaide sporting family.

1 portrait in the collection

Alfred Hill CMG OBE

Magazine article by Dr Deborah Hill, 2017

Alfred Hill CMG OBE (1869-1960) was a composer, conductor and violinist.

2 portraits in the collection

On the road again

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

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.

In memory of the Rev William Hill, 1869

Charles Wherrett

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Clem Hill (member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team), 1896

H Parker Rolfe

Portrait, albumen photograph on cabinet card

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

Alfred Hill, 1936

Rayner Hoff

Portrait, cast plaster, patinated on wooden base

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000

Barry Hill, 1993

Rick Amor

Portrait, drypoint and roulette on wove paper

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

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa, c. 1847

an unknown artist, Thomas Wharton

Portrait, daguerreotype in a pinchbeck case

Purchased 2001

Queen's Birthday Weekend, 2013

by Alan Hill and Kelly Hussey-Smith

Magazine article by Sarah Hill, 2002

Confide in Me

This article examines the photographic portraiture of Polly Borland.

The Bushranger Tragedy (from The Australasian Sketcher, 23 November 1878)

The Bushranger Tragedy (from The Australasian Sketcher, 23 November 1878), 1878

an unknown artist, The Australasian Sketcher

Portrait, wood engraving on paper

Purchased 2003

Four from the 30s

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

Australia's tradition of sculpted portraits stretches back to the early decades of the nineteenth century and continues to sustain a group of dedicated sculptors.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm

The Wonder Years

Magazine article by Sarah Hill, 2001

Sarah Hill introduces the portrait busts of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm by Enid Fleming.

Alfred Hill, c. 1911-1913

May and Mina Moore photographic studio, Annie May Moore, Minnie Louise Moore

Portrait, photograph on paper on card mounted on canvas

Gift of Catherine Dwyer 2021

David M Thomas

Dream Job

Previous exhibition, 2011

Since 1993 Brisbane-based artist David M Thomas has investigated self identity through art works that encompass painting, text, audio, video and performance.

Thomas Keneally AO

'When I grow up I want to be an astronaut'

Thomas Keneally (b.1935), author and republican activist, has achieved a considerable reputation for the breadth and accessibility of his writing, and his passion for causes about which many Australians feel deeply.

1 portrait in the collection

Andy Thomas

Portrait story

An interview with Australian astronaut, Dr. Andy Thomas, who describes the experience of space travel.

Thomas Atkinson

Thomas Lewis Atkinson (1817-c. 1890) is described in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists as 'one of the shining representatives of English engraving'.

1 portrait in the collection

Avril Thomas

Avril Thomas (b. 1956), artist, was born in Malaysia and went to boarding school in Scotland and Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Rover Thomas

Rover Thomas (1926-1998), Kukatja-Wangkajunga artist, was born in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia and worked as a stockman and fencer before losing his employment upon the introduction of equal pay for indigenous workers in 1975.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Pearce

Thomas Pearce (c. 1860-1909) was an apprentice on the English merchant vessel the Loch Ard, which embarked for Victoria in March 1878 carrying 37 crew and 16 passengers, many from the Carmichael family.

1 portrait in the collection

Gubbo Thomas

Guboo Ted Thomas (1909–2002), land rights activist, was a tribal Elder of the Yuin nation and grew up on the Wallaga Lake Reserve near Narooma.

1 portrait in the collection

Andy Thomas AO

Andy Thomas AO (b. 1951) is an astronaut. Born and educated in Adelaide, an engineer by profession, he managed a number of aeronautical programs and patented several inventions before joining NASA in 1992.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips was born in Dudley, Warwickshire and initially trained as a glass painter before moving to London, aged 20, with a letter of introduction to the painter Benjamin West.

6 portraits in the collection

Thomas Lord

Thomas Daunt Lord (1783–1865) was the commandant of the convict station on Maria Island from 1825 until 1832.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Buddle

Thomas Buddle (1812-1883), Wesleyan missionary, worked for 42 years in New Zealand, ministering to Maori and colonists in the Waikato, Auckland and the south.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook produced portraits for the Gentleman's Magazine and frontispieces for book publishers, as well as a number of single plates in different genres for Boydell.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Muir

Thomas Muir (1765-1799), lawyer, political activist and political convict, began studies at the University of Glasgow at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Bock

Thomas Bock, artist, printmaker and photographer, is believed to have been born at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, in 1790.

3 portraits in the collection

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated

Hon. Thomas Playford

The Hon. Thomas Playford was a delegate from South Australia to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney, 1891.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas J. Washbourne

Thomas J Washbourne worked as a photographer in Geelong and Melbourne in the 1860s and 70s.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas de Kessler

Thomas de Kessler, artist, came to Australia from Hungary in 1950. Born into an academic and creative family, he spoke several languages and had attended art school before arriving in Melbourne.

3 portraits in the collection

Thomas Clark

Thomas Clark, teacher and painter, arrived in Victoria from England in about 1852, having been anatomical draftsman at King's College London and headmaster of the Birmingham School of Design.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Pennant

Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), Welsh traveller, antiquary, naturalist, and author, visited Joseph Banks in September 1771, shortly after Banks returned from his voyage with Cook on the Endeavour.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Purves

Thomas Purves (1909-1969), known as Tam, founded the Australian Galleries in Smith Street, Collingwood, Melbourne with his wife Anne in 1956.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was one of the leading portrait painters of the Georgian era.

8 portraits in the collection

Thomas Brassey

Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836–1918), politician and governor, studied law and modern history at Oxford, but abandoned law for a career in politics two years after being called to the Bar.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Woolner

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

Thomas Lonigan

A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas McIntyre

A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Keneally part one

Recorded 1967

Thomas Keneally part two

Recorded 1967

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Self portrait, 1971

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diana de Kessler 2009

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

Thomas Forster Knox

The Knox's third son, Thomas Forster Knox (1849-1919) followed his father and older brother into business, and became prominent in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Heathfield Carrick

Thomas Heathfield Carrick, miniature painter, grew up in Carlisle, where he trained and traded as a chemist, painting miniatures in his spare time.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) is one of the most intriguing and talented figures in colonial Australian art.

4 portraits in the collection

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Thomas Herbert Maguire was a painter and lithographer working in London in the middle of the nineteenth century.

4 portraits in the collection

Thomas Foster Chuck and Son

Thomas Foster Chuck (c. 1826-1898) specialised in photographing well-known colonists, many of whom featured amongst the 700 photographs in his huge mosaic The Explorers and Early Colonists of Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas James Lempriere

Portrait, etching on paper

Thomas Lempriere came to Tasmania in 1822, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas White, midshipman, c. 1838

John Kay

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (1816-1878) was a merchant, shipbuilder, wool broker and pioneer of the technique of freezing meat for export.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane

Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane (1773-1860) was born into an aristocratic Scottish family and entered the army at the age of 16.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Joseph Carr

Thomas Joseph Carr (1839–1917) was the second Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, the successor to James Alipius Goold.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Foster Chuck

Thomas Foster Chuck (1826-1898), photographer and entrepreneur, was born in London and arrived in Victoria in 1861.

4 portraits in the collection

Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) travelled to Australia as a member of the expedition conducted by Owen Stanley on the Rattlesnake between 1846 and 1850.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Wentworth Wills

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Thomas Wentworth (Tom) Wills (1836–1880), is popularly thought of as the co-inventor of Australian Rules football.

2 portraits in the collection

Rover Thomas, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Purchased 2005

Thomas Wentworth Wills

Thomas Muir of Huntershill, 1838

John Kay

by Nat Thomas & Concettina Inserra

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Portrait of mother (after Mirka), 2008

The Explorers & Early Colonists of Victoria

The Explorers & Early Colonists of Victoria, 1872

Portrait, composite albumen photograph on paper

Purchased 2018

Daniel Thomas, 1987

Judy Cassab AO CBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mr Peter Kampfner 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Thomas Keneally, 1987

Bernd Heinrich

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Thomas Christensen, 2006

by Mark Rogers

Major Thomas Lord, c. 1840

Purchased 2015

Andy Thomas, 2002

Montalbetti + Campbell

Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2002

Thomas Woolner, c. 1865

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

Reverend Thomas Buddle, 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Thomas Woolner in Australia

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Missing Persons

Desperately seeking Woolner medallions

John Thomas "Jack" Lang

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

John Thomas Lang (1876–1975) served two terms as premier of New South Wales in the 1920s and 1930s.

5 portraits in the collection

Thomas Leech, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

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

Thomas Muir, 1800

François Bonneville

Portrait, copper-line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Thomas Pennant, c. 1790

William Ridley

Portrait, stipple engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Thomas Fitzherbert Hawkins, c. 1790

Portrait, oil on cotton laid down on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter E.B. Mansell 2018

Thomas Simson Pratt, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Portrait, ink, coloured pencil, gouache, crayon and fibre-tipped pen on double layer mount board with gold coloured ink border

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

The Last of the Angry Penguins - John Perceval, 1999

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

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.

Jessie Robertson, c. 1849

Thomas Bock

Portrait, pencil, chalk and gouache on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Jessie Whyte, c. 1840

Thomas Bock

Portrait, pastel and chalk on paper laid down on cotton over Cedar strainer

Purchased 2017

Portrait of Tam Purves, 1958

John Brack

Portrait, ink, coloured pencil, gouache, crayon and fibre-tipped pen on single mount board with gold coloured ink border

Purchased 2012

John Perceval, 1999

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001

Alexander Pearce
executed for murder
July 19th 1824

Public hanging

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1814

Thomas Phillips

Purchased 2011

William Charles Wentworth, 1854

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

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

Jack Lang

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on paper laid on cardboard

Recorded 1967

Queen Susan, c. 1868

Thomas J. Washbourne

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Sir Charles Nicholson, 1854

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased through the Foundation Acquisitions Fund 2015

Thomas Townshend, Lord Viscount Sydney

Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney PC (1733-1800) was British Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, given responsibility for devising a plan to settle convicts at Botany Bay.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche

Portrait, tinted lithograph on paper

Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche (1871–1936), actor, director and producer, was one of Australia’s most successful theatre exports.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Thomas Gore-Browne, 1864

J Walch & Sons

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Thomas Wentworth Wills, c. 1859

Portrait, 1/2 plate ambrotype with applied colour in a double elliptical brass matt in a leather case

Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Thomas Henry Huxley, c. 1870

Maull & Co Photographers

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Archbishop Thomas Joseph Carr, c. 1886

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Thomas Joseph Carr, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, c. 1887

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Lockdown dreaming II

John Morley, Madelin Bronar-Thomas and

Phillip Parker King, 1854

N Schiavonetti after Thomas Phillips

Portrait, cast plaster

Purchased 2000

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, 1812

Portrait, line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Edward Paine Butler, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Purchased 2009

Portrait of Henry Hopkins, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour on paper

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2013

Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria

Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, c. 1864

Thomas Clark

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

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

Poison pen

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

Charles Joseph La Trobe, 1853

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Purchased 2006

The Cutmear sisters, Jane and Lucy, c. 1842

A man of superior attainments

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.

Ellen Stirling, c. 1828

Thomas Phillips

Purchased with funds provided by the Ian Potter Foundation 2008

Tom Wills, c. 1857 (printed c. 1905-1910)

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on grey paper on card

Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Bishop James Moore, c. 1888-1889

Charles Fox after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Alexander MacLeay, c. 1845

George French Angas, Thomas McLean

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

South Australian Illustrated (Plate 35), 1847

Portrait, Lithograph

Robert Brown, 1850

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Thomas Foster Chuck and Son

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Dr James Moorhouse, 1878-1879

Thomas Stewart after Jean Laurent Mosnier

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Chevalier d'Éon

Sir Edward Eyre Williams, 1872

Portrait, albumen silver photograph, hand coloured on paper

Gift of Ross and Judy O'Connell 2016

Jack Lang, 1931

Tom Glover

Portrait, pencil, pen and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Thomas Pearce, c. 1878

The Photographic Society of Victoria, Melbourne

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite on card

Purchased 2010

The Final Frontier

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2002

Magda Keaney talks with Montalbetti+Campbell about their photographic portrait of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c., 1838

John Cochran after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Portrait, fibreglass and resin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Jack Lang, life mask, n.d.

Arthur Murch

Purchased 2000

Jack Lang, 1970

Adam Martin

an unknown artist after Thomas Bock

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Elsie Martin 2000

Jane Franklin, c. 1866-1875

Portrait, carved marble relief

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

The people's champion, Mr Lang, c. 1927

Portrait, cast plaster, painted

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE

Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE, 2006

Avril Thomas

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Commissioned 2006

Preparatory study for Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE

Preparatory study for Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE, 2005

Avril Thomas

Commissioned 2006

Martha Sarah Butler, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Purchased 2009

Captain W Kinghorne, 1834

Thomas James Lempriere

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

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

Fine and dandy

Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.

William Henry Harvey, c. 1850

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Portrait, collage of coloured paper, pencil on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Jack Lang, c. 1930-1940

George Finey

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

William Dampier, c. 1780

an unknown artist after Thomas Murray

Portrait, copper-line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

John Gould, 1849

Thomas Herbert Maguire, M & N Hanhart

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

William Jackson Hooker, 1851

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Frederick Bromley after Robert Frain

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1842

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Round the World (Thomas Brassey), 1877

Purchased 2015

Reverend William Bedford junior, c. 1846

Portrait, watercolour on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013

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.

Captain Sir John Franklin, Kt, KCH, KRG, DCL, FRS & c. Commander of the Arctic Expedition, 1845

Captain Sir John Franklin, Kt, KCH, KRG, DCL, FRS & c. Commander of the Arctic Expedition, 1845, c. 1847

an unknown artist, D Bogue after Thomas Phillips

C E. Wagstaff after Thomas Phillips

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

Sir Joseph Banks, 1840s

Samuel Bellin after Thomas Heathfield Carrick

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Lord John Russell, 1844

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Men of the Day No.19 "A great Med'cine-Man among the Inqui-ring Redskins" (Thomas Henry Huxley), 1871

Purchased 2015

Spikes: then and now

William Evans, Anthony Cardon after Sir Thomas Lawrence

As part of its ongoing program of commissions of portraits of prominent Australians, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a portrait of Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson by South Australian artist Avril Thomas.

Sir Joseph Banks, 1810

Thomas Woolnoth, Charles Knight

Purchased with funds provided by the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Canberra 2000

La Perouse, from a miniature in the possession of La Perouse's niece at Alby

La Perouse, from a miniature in the possession of La Perouse's niece at Alby, n.d.

Thomas Atkinson, Samuel Mullen after Henry Weigall Jnr

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

The Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Melbourne (Dr. Charles Perry)

The Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Melbourne (Dr. Charles Perry), 1876

Samuel Freeman, Fisher, Son & Co London after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

James Faed, W Wilding after John Watson Gordon

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

General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1850 (published)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

The Burke and Wills Monument, 1869

Portrait, albumen paper photograph on carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Lord Viscount Sydney, c. 1790

John Young after Gilbert Stuart

Charles Turner after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, 1827

London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Oscar Asche, c. 1905

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, 2006 Ralph Heimans AM

Dane reign

Magazine article by Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby, 2018

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

Kismet (Mr Oscar Asche), 1912-1913

Alick Ritchie, Vanity Fair Magazine

Edward Scriven, J B Ball & J DeCamp after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Gift of Ronald A Walker 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Rt. Honourable Lord Hawkesbury, 1808

Thomas Woolnoth, William Mackenzie, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London & New York

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

La Perouse, 1830s

Portrait, albumen silver photograph

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

The First Ministry under Responsible Government in New South Wales

The First Ministry under Responsible Government in New South Wales, 1856

Freeman Brothers

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882, page 1

Unknown artist Publisher Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

Edward Knox Jnr and Thomas Forster Knox., c. 1855

Henry Meyer, T Cadell & W Davies after Sir Thomas Lawrence, William Evans

Portrait, daguerreotype

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010

The Rt Hon. Henry Robert Stewart, Lord Viscount Castlereagh, MRIA & FRS

The Rt Hon. Henry Robert Stewart, Lord Viscount Castlereagh, MRIA & FRS, 1814

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

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

Tiny Trace of a Colonial Giant

At just 7.8 x 6.2 cm, the daguerreotype of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa is one of the smallest works in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Woburn Sheepshearing, 1811

Thomas Morris, M N. Bates, Joseph C. Stadler after George Garrard

Portrait, aquatint with stipple and etching and engraving, hand coloured on chine colle on paper laid down on cotton stretched over wooden strainer

Purchased 2018

Thomas and John Clarke, bushrangers, photographed in Braidwood Gaol

Thomas and John Clarke, bushrangers, photographed in Braidwood Gaol, 1867

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on laid down on a section cut from a nineteenth century album page

Purchased 2019

Burnum Burnum and Guboo Ted Thomas, 1984

Juno Gemes

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2004

Bonfire of the vanities

Magazine article by Stuart Purves, 2016

Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.

Robert Earl of Buckinghamshire (Hobart), 1808

Robert Dunkarton after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Henry Meyer after Thomas Phillips

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Henry Bathurst, Earl Bathurst, 1810

Portrait, soft ground etching on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Captain James Cook FRS, 1784

Thomas Cook

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Painting writing

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

'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

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated, 1891

Portrait, engraving on paper (4 sheets)

Purchased 2009

Pro Hart, Broken Hill, NSW, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Rowan Thomas, 2015

by Graham Caughley

Thomas from series Bois to Men, 2014

by Monique Montfroy

Patrick White, Castle Hill, Sydney, 1963 (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

Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Lee Kernaghan near Broken Hill, 2005

Ian Jennings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Kelly Dixon, Tent Hill, Qld, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Renata Pari-Lewis and Jess Hill

Vox pops

It's really strange to see myself portrayed like that, because when you have those private moments it's only you having that private moment to yourself.

Slim Dusty at Carlton Hill Station, WA, 1993

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, sepia toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Nora Heysen with her dog sitting outside her home, Hunters Hill, Sydney

Nora Heysen with her dog sitting outside her home, Hunters Hill, Sydney, 2000

Sage

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001

Nora Heysen with her dog standing outside her home, Hunters Hill, Sydney

Nora Heysen with her dog standing outside her home, Hunters Hill, Sydney, 2000

Sage

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, sepia toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001

Nora Heysen inside her home, Hunters Hill, Sydney

Nora Heysen inside her home, Hunters Hill, Sydney, 2000

Sage

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, sepia toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001

Mark Bethwaite, North Broken Hill, Olympic Yachtsman

Mark Bethwaite, North Broken Hill, Olympic Yachtsman,

Joe Greenberg

Portrait, watercolour, crayon, coloured pencil, fibre-tipped pen and gouache on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001

Paddy Jaminji, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Purchased 2005

Elizabeth Sarah Ellen Carter

Elizabeth Sarah Ellen Carter (née Hill, 1845-1927) was one of the eight children born to Sydney cabinetmaker and undertaker John Hill jnr and his wife Elizabeth - the step-daughter of ex-convict boatman, John Cadman.

1 portrait in the collection

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

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

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Eleanor Wingate

Eleanor Wingate (née Rouse, 1813–1898) was the second youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

Eleanor Wingate (née Rouse), c. 1850

Portrait, hand coloured photograph

Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)

Wedgwood and Bentley

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), potter and industrialist, became an apprentice to his potter brother, Thomas, at an early age.

1 portrait in the collection

Pro Hart MBE

Portrait, coloured chalk and black ink on artist board

Pro Hart MBE (1928-2006) was born in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia in 1928.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Ernest Thomas Fisk, 1943-1944

Charles Wheeler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019

Lewis Pingo

Archived media releases 2017

Lewis Pingo was an engraver at the Royal Mint. Pingo's father Thomas, an Italian-born medallist and die engraver, was one of the founders of the Royal Academy in 1768.

1 portrait in the collection

Tara Callaghan, Suzie Furness, and Angus Trumble

One Millionth Visitor to Portrait Gallery Touring Program

13 November 2017

The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to announce the Gallery’s Touring Exhibitions Program has welcomed its one millionth visitor.

R O'Hara Burke, c. 1861

De Gruchy & Leigh

Purchased 2009

Paddy Jaminji (Jampin)

Paddy Jaminji (Jampin) (1912-1996), Kija visual artist, spent much of his life in and around his country near Bedford Downs station in WA.

1 portrait in the collection

A head for business and a heart for love

Lust

For love, not money

William John Wills, c. 1861

De Gruchy & Leigh

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Theresa Mort

Theresa Shepheard Mort (née Laidley, 1820-1869), colonial spouse, was one of eight children of civil servant James Laidley and his wife Eliza Jane (née Shepheard).

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Henry Barkly

Portrait story

An interview with former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers, who describes the portrait of Sir Henry Barkly by Thomas Clark.

The last bushrangers

It's Complicated

Brothers in harms

Elizabeth Rouse

Elizabeth Rouse (née Adams, 1772–1849), colonial spouse, arrived in New South Wales as a free settler in 1801 with her husband, Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and their first two children, one of whom had been born on the voyage out.

1 portrait in the collection

Brendan, NT, 2006

by Conor O'Brien

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

Portrait, albumen photograph on 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

Second thoughts, 2008

by Brad Mitchell

Sir Leslie Ward, Hentschel-Colourtype, Vanity Fair Magazine

Fairie (A W Cox), 1910

Purchased 2015

Susan Lord, c. 1840

Purchased 2015

Portrait 61

Summer 2018/19

Portrait, white on blue Jasper Ware in oval shaped wood and gilt frame

Max Dupain's unknown portrait subjects, phrenologist Madame Sibly, Indigenous-European relationships, Thomas Gainsborough and more.

Jasperware medallion of Captain James Cook

Jasperware medallion of Captain James Cook, 1779

Wedgwood and Bentley

Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Jean Bellette

Jean Bellette (1908-1991), painter, studied in her native Hobart before moving to Sydney to train with Julian Ashton.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Abraham

Charles Abraham, son of a London architect, trained at the Royal Academy schools under the sculptor Sierier, and for a further three years in Paris and Rome.

1 portrait in the collection

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

Vincent Lingiari AM

Vincent Lingiari AM (1919–1988) was an Elder of the Gurindji people of the Northern Territory.

1 portrait in the collection

Edward Henty, late 19th century

Previous exhibition, 2020

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tim Clark 2018

Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

Shirley Purdie

Using ochres collected on her country in Western Australia’s East Kimberley, Shirley Purdie’s self-portrait is a kaleidoscope of traditional Gija stories and Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) passed down to her.

Alfred William Cox

Alfred William Cox (1857–1919), racehorse owner and breeder, was born in Liverpool, England, the son of a successful cotton broker.

1 portrait in the collection

Dowling family portrait [Selina, Jane, Leura and Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling]

Dowling family portrait [Selina, Jane, Leura and Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling], c. 1862

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

Maria Dowling and her children Leura, Bessie, Selina, Jane, Jack, Ben and Joe Dowling [Selina Dowling, Jane Dowling, Maria Jane Dowling (née Ware), John Ware Dowling, Joseph Dowling, Benjamin Dowling, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling, Leura Dowling]

Maria Dowling and her children Leura, Bessie, Selina, Jane, Jack, Ben and Joe Dowling [Selina Dowling, Jane Dowling, Maria Jane Dowling (née Ware), John Ware Dowling, Joseph Dowling, Benjamin Dowling, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling, Leura Dowling], c. 1859

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured

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

Portrait of a young man, held to be John Robertson

Portrait of a young man, held to be John Robertson, c. 1852

Portrait, daguerreotype, hand coloured

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

Portrait 5

September - November 2002

This issue of Portrait Magazine features Bill Leak's portrait of Robert Hughes, Polly Borland's photographs, Bill Brandt, Andy Thomas, Tracey Moffatt and more.

William St Leonards Robertson (standing) beside an unidentified man

William St Leonards Robertson (standing) beside an unidentified man, early 1880s

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

Leura Dowling, c. 1861

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

Maria Jane Dowling, c. 1862

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

Portrait 35

March - May 2010

This issue features suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Wainewright, Rick Amor, Chuck Close, Mick Dodson, Scott Redford, the National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition and more.

Harry Hudson

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Harry Hudson (1907-1974) was a Melbourne-based painter. His work was included in a number of group exhibitions at the Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Carlton in the 1980s along with those of such notable artists as Roland Wakelin, Grace Cossington-Smith and James Gleeson.

1 portrait in the collection

Brian Croser AO, 1998

Kate Gollings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001

The Hon. James Whyte, c. 1874

John Hubert Newman

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

Georg von Neumayer, c. 1860

Johnstone & Co

Portrait, eight carte de visites, hand coloured, contained in a red leather presentation case

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

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida], 1860s-1870s

Various

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

Chips Rafferty MBE

Melbourne and Sydney Photographic Co

Chips Rafferty MBE (1909–1971), screen actor, was born John Goffage in Broken Hill and nicknamed 'Chips' as a boy.

5 portraits in the collection

Robert O'Hara Burke, c. 1860

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Richard Rouse

Richard Rouse (1774-1852), grazier and landowner, came to New South Wales in 1801 as a free settler with his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772-1849) and the first two of their nine children.

1 portrait in the collection

Shirley Purdie

Contributing artists

Born: 1947, Gilbun – Mabel Downs Station, WA
Works: Warmun, WA

Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

John Downman

She saved his life. He showed her painting.

Nearest & Dearest

Leaders, painters, friends

Roo shooter's offsider, 2017

by Adam Ferguson

Portrait, 24 page brown leather bound album of 119 cartes de visite and 16 cabinet card photographs

Album of cartes de visite and cabinet cards compiled by William St Leonards Robertson, 1860s-c. 1900

Various

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

Chips Rafferty, c. 1945

Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

David Mitchell

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

1 portrait in the collection

Jesse, 2010

by Lia Steele

Francisca Adriana (Paquita) Mawson OBE

Lady Francisca Adriana (Paquita) Mawson OBE (1891–1974), community worker and writer, was born in London and came to Australia when her father, mining engineer Guillaume Daniel Delprat, became the General Manager of the Broken Hill Proprietary Co.

1 portrait in the collection

John Chapman

Little is known of John Chapman, who engraved fine allegorical subjects after the designs of J Smith and Richard Corbould and worked closely with Thomas Macklin on his Shakespeare series.

2 portraits in the collection

Behind closed doors

Renata Pari-Lewis

Joan Croll AO

Dr Joan Croll AO (1928–2022), radiologist and physician, studied medicine at the University of Sydney and commenced practising in 1975.

2 portraits in the collection

The steam apprentice, 2009

by Gary Steer

Kerry Dundas

Kerry Dundas, son of artist Douglas Dundas, gained an interest in photography as a student at Sydney Grammar school.

8 portraits in the collection

Shirley Purdie

Shirley Purdie (b. 1947) is a senior Gija artist at the Warmun Art Centre who has been painting for more than twenty years.

1 portrait in the collection

Paquita Mawson, late 1940s

Ingrid Erns

Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Martha Knox, c. 1855

Portrait, daguerreotype

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010

Future Australian, 2009

by Robin Sellick

Richard Rouse (copy of drawing by William Griffith), c. 1847

Portrait, pencil, ink and watercolour on paper

Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)

David Strachan

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on board

David Strachan (1919–1970), painter and printmaker, was educated at Geelong Grammar School and then studied art at the Slade School in London.

2 portraits in the collection

Douglas Mawson, 1933

Henry James Haley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Cyril Henschke

Cyril Henschke (1924-1979), winemaker, was a member of a well-established Barossa winemaking family.

1 portrait in the collection

David Clarke, 1995 (printed 2018)

Gary Ede

Purchased 2018

Moses Griffith

Moses Griffith, topographer, draftsman, watercolourist and engraver, spent his life in the service of Thomas Pennant, antiquarian and amateur naturalist; although engaged as a servant, he was employed by Pennant as a full time artist from 1771.

1 portrait in the collection

François Jacques Dequevauvillier

François Jacques Dequevauviller was the son of the French engraver Nicolas-Barthelemy François Dequevauviller (1745–1807).

1 portrait in the collection

Margaret Robertson, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Previous exhibition, 2002

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

Bill Brandt

A Retrospective

From Brandt's early work that documents fixed social contrasts of pre-World War II life in Britain to his later experimentation with a surreal style, this exhibition spans 50 years of Brandt's far reaching career in an extensive assemblage of 155 vintage gelatin silver prints from the Bill Brandt Archive in London.

S. Milbourn Jnr

S. Milbourn Junior is listed as operating as a photographer in Glenelg, South Australia, from 1890 to 1894, though there are scant details of his practice in existing texts on Australian photography.

2 portraits in the collection

Dave

Jay Hynes

John T. Barber

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

John Thomas Barber, army officer, insurer, miniaturist and philanthropist, took the additional name of Beaumont in 1812.

1 portrait in the collection

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

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.

John Williams

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

Sister Mary Brady

Sister Mary Brady OP (1922-2014), born in Tamworth, is a self-taught painter, though she did receive critiques from Joshua Smith and Norman Carter.

1 portrait in the collection

Robert T. Carter

Portrait, steel engraving on paper

Robert Thomas Carter (1843–1917) was a leading Sydney cabinetmaker and furniture warehouseman, and later an antique dealer.

2 portraits in the collection

Matthew Burnett, c. 1865

Henry Samuel Sadd

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

All there in black and white

Captain Moonlite et al on trial for murder

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.

Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite, c.1879 attributed to Charles Nettleton

Diseased curiosity

Just after 10.00 o'clock on 3 December 1879, four prisoners were brought from their cells at Darlinghurst Gaol and placed in the dock of a courtroom heaving with agitated spectators

Bill May

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Bill May (1915-1993), luthier, completed an apprenticeship in cabinetmaking and taught woodwork before founding Mayton Stringed Instruments and Repairs in the early 1940s.

1 portrait in the collection

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.

J.R. Vickery

James Richard Vickery OBE (1902-1997), food scientist, saw the field of his life’s research grow from non-existence to world recognition.

1 portrait in the collection

Cyril Henschke in his tasting room at Keyneton, 1968

Douglass Baglin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

George Mealmaker

George Mealmaker (1768–1808), convict and activist, became involved in radical politics in his native Dundee in the 1780s.

1 portrait in the collection

Maurice O'Shea

The portrait of Patrick White by Brett Whiteley

Maurice O'Shea (1897-1956) is remembered as a key figure in the formation of the modern Australian wine industry.

1 portrait in the collection

Patrick White at Centennial Park, 1979–1980

White Whiteley

Previous exhibition, 2012

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

Maide Hann

Maide Hann (1924–2012) was the leading photographic model in Australia for several years after the Second World War.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir William Beechey

Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1 portrait in the collection

Tom Glover

English-born Thomas Ellis Glover moved to New Zealand as a child and by his early twenties was working as a cartoonist, court reporter and journalist.

10 portraits in the collection

Neville and Jill Wran - as the Duke and Duchess of Sydney (with apologies to Piero della Francesca)

Jill Hickson Wran AM

Jill Hickson Wran AM (b. 1948) graduated from the University of Sydney and then worked for Qantas.

1 portrait in the collection

First Australian first-class cricket team

The ‘first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America’ was in fact the second Australian cricket side to contest matches internationally (a team of Indigenous players having done so in 1868), but it is considered the first official national representative team to tour overseas.

1 portrait in the collection

N Schiavonetti

Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, studied art for several years before being employed by an engraver named Testolini to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which Testolini passed off as his own.

1 portrait in the collection

Lady Edith Knox

Edith Knox (1855–1942), matriarch, was a daughter of Janet and Scottish-born merchant and businessman Joseph Scaife Willis, who was president of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce and a founding director of the Sydney Exchange Co.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir James Hardy OBE

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured on glass plate with black paint backing

Sir James Hardy OBE (1932-2023) was a wine industry executive, yachtsman and community leader.

1 portrait in the collection

Mr and Mrs R. T. Carter, c. 1863

Milligan Bros (Studio)

Gift of Mr and Mrs James Bain 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Dr J.R. Vickery, O.B.E., 1967

William Pidgeon

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the CSIRO Agriculture and Food Division 2017

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

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

Maurice O'Shea, 1951 (printed 2003)

Purchased 2005

Edward Knox, c. 1927-1929

W B McInnes

Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

A charming prospect

Nearest & Dearest

Family fortunes

The mystery of Enoch Arden

Tennyson's Enoch Arden was inspired by a story that Thomas Woolner passed on to him – but whose story and of whom?

Pro Hart & Associates, 2004

Nick Young

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

Study for Portrait of W S Robinson, 1952

Sir William Dobell OBE

Portrait, oil on board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2003

Greg Warburton

Portrait, oil on composition board

Greg Warburton (1952–2022) trained at Hornsby Technical College and Alexander Mackie College in the 1970s.

2 portraits in the collection

A life shared

Devotion

Wartime romance

Jean Bellette, 1937

Adrian Lawlor

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Sir Lindesay Clark, 1973

Clifton Pugh AO

Gift of Alcoa World Alumina Australia 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Portrait 60

Spring 2018

Ralph Heimans on his portraits, and features on Louis Kahan, Helena Rubinstein, Judy Cassab and Tasmanian convicts.

Jack Purtell

Jack Purtell (1921-2017), jockey, had his first ride at the age of fifteen.

1 portrait in the collection

Tom Hughes AO KC

Hon Thomas Hughes AO KC (b. 1923), lawyer and former politician, was born in Sydney and educated at Riverview before serving in the RAAF during World War 2.

3 portraits in the collection

Ninette Dutton OAM

Ninette Dutton OAM (1923-2007), artist, broadcaster and author, was born in Adelaide and educated at Creveen and Woodlands before studying Social Science at the University of Adelaide.

1 portrait in the collection

Balang T E Lewis

Balang T.E. Lewis (1958–2018), a Murrungun man, was an actor, singer, songwriter and cultural leader.

2 portraits in the collection

Jack Mundey AO

Jack Mundey AO (1929–2020), union activist, is credited with preventing the demolition of much of inner Sydney’s built heritage in the 1970s and 1980s.

3 portraits in the collection

Billy Cook and Pride of Egypt, 1954

Ern McQuillan OAM

Portrait, oil crayon and collage of printed magazine cuttings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004

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

Amanda King

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Sir James Balderstone

Sir James Balderstone (1921-2014) was chairman of BHP from 1984 to 1989.

1 portrait in the collection

Ethel Anderson and her daughter, Bethia, c. 1912

G.W. Lawrie

Gift of Mrs SM Asplin 2011

Vali Myers, 2001

Eva Collins

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003

Ray Crooke AM

Ray Crooke AM grew up in Melbourne, where after army service in WA, North Queensland and Borneo, he trained at Swinburne Tech from 1946 to 1948.

3 portraits in the collection

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.

Jack Charles

Recorded 2022

William Robertson jnr, c. 1852

Portrait, 1/6 plate daguerreotype, hand coloured with case

Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Samuel Wood

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

Fred Schepisi AO

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Fred Schepisi AO (b. 1939), film producer and director, briefly trained to be a priest before working in advertising.

1 portrait in the collection

Songman, portrait of Kev Carmody, 2006

Peter Hudson

Courtesy of Kev Carmody, Song Cycles Pty Ltd.

Sir James Hardy, c. 1975 (printed 2002)

Lewis Morley

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

Robin Sellick

Previous exhibition, 2013

Robin Sellick (b. 1967), photographer, is well known for his distinctive portraits of Australian actors, musicians, politicians and athletes.

17 portraits in the collection

Paul Kelly and The Portraits

Aspects of singer songwriter Paul Kelly’s performance persona are communicated by portraits selected from a range of artists and leading music photographers in this focus exhibition.

Study for the portrait of Aldo Giurgola, 2005

Mandy Martin

Portrait, gouache, fibre tip pen and natural pigment on colour photocopy

Gift of the artist 2005

Sir Eugene Goossens

Sir (Aynsley) Eugene Goossens (1893-1962) was an English conductor, composer and violinist.

2 portraits in the collection

Peter Hudson

Peter Hudson (b. 1950), is a landscape and portrait painter who lives and works in Maleny, Queensland.

5 portraits in the collection

Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald

Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald (née Rouse, 1818–1863) was born at Rouse Hill, New South Wales, the youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

Reg Richardson AM, 2014

Mitch Cairns

Portrait, oil on linen

Purchased with funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2015

James Heath

James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir George Fisher CMG

Sir George Fisher CMG (1903-2007), mining industry executive, began work at the Zinc Corporation at Broken Hill in 1925 after having completed a mining engineering degree in Adelaide.

1 portrait in the collection

Narelle Autio

Recorded 2018

Jim Paterson

Henry Seppings-Wright, Vanity Fair Magazine

Jim Paterson, painter, printmaker and sculptor, was born in Melbourne and completed his diploma in Fine Arts at Prahran Technical College in 1969.

1 portrait in the collection

Sammy (Samuel Wood), 1892

Portrait, plasticine maquette

Purchased 2010

Jack Purtell, n.d.

John Frith

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Frith family 2013

Portrait of an Artist (Self portrait), 1944

David Strachan

Portrait, oil on canvas board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Joan Croll, 1976

John Brack

Gift of Frank Croll and Dr Joan Croll AO 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Jack Mundey, 1997

Lewis Morley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

Lady Knox, c. 1927-1929

W B McInnes

Portrait, conté crayon on paper

Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Study for portrait of Joan Croll, 1976

John Brack

Gift of Dr Joan Croll AO 2007. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

William John Pickett Bedford

Portrait, watercolour and gouache on paper

William John Pickett Bedford (1805–1869) was the eldest of three children of Anglican clergyman, William Bedford (1781–1852), and his wife, Eleanor, and came to Van Diemen’s Land with his family in 1823 following the appointment of his father to a chaplaincy in the colony.

1 portrait in the collection

Theresa and James Laidley Mort, 1844

William Nicholas

Gift of the Mort family 2009

Reg Richardson AM

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

Reg Richardson AM, charity fundraiser, grew up in Broken Hill, and left school at fifteen for an office job with the Zinc Corporation mine.

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.

Sir Sidney Kidman

phra ajahn ekaggata fka terry milligan

Sir Sidney Kidman, pastoralist (1857-1935), is Australia's 'cattle king'.

2 portraits in the collection

Jack Mundey, 1985

François Bonneville after Joseph Jauffret

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

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

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

Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald (née Rouse), c. 1850

Portrait, hand coloured photograph

Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)

Fred Schepisi, c. 2000

Kate Gollings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004

Charles Darwin

John Collier

Portrait, pencil on paper

Marcie Elizabeth Wilson, 1922

George Lambert

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

Marilyn Ball, Albatross, 2018 (detail) by Linde Ivimey

So Fine

Contemporary women artists make Australian history

Previous exhibition, 2018

This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.

Who is Lillie Roberts?

Devotion

Talented wife for a talented husband

Eugene Goossens, c. 1954

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

John Schaeffer AO - art collector and philanthropist

John Schaeffer AO - art collector and philanthropist, 2014

Evert Ploeg

Purchased with funds provided by Harold Mitchell AC

William Robertson junior, c. 1857

Conway Hart

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

William St Leonards Robertson, c. 1865

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured

Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Charles Hewitt

Born in Lincolnshire, Charles Hewitt (1837–1912) had begun working in Melbourne by 1860 and was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Victoria.

3 portraits in the collection

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

Mervyn Bishop

Purchased 2000

Nicholas Baudin

Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754–1803), cartographic surveyor and naturalist, was sent by the French government to survey the coast of Australia in 1800.

1 portrait in the collection

Rayner Hoff

George Rayner Hoff (1894-1937), sculptor, was born in England and trained at the Royal College of Art, London.

2 portraits in the collection

Dan Sultan, 2011

Martin Philbey

Purchased with funds provided by Ruth and Peter McMullin 2013

Nam Le, 2010

Rozalind Drummond

Purchased 2010

Return (Balang T.E. Lewis), 2016

Philip Myers

Gift of the artist 2019

Nam Le

Nam Le (b. 1978), writer, came to Australia as a baby with his Vietnamese refugee parents.

1 portrait in the collection

Queenie McKenzie Nakara

Queenie McKenzie (c. 1930–1998) was a prominent Gija artist in the East Kimberley painting movement.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur T. Woodward

Arthur Thomas 'A T' Woodward (1865–1943), painter and art scholar, was born in Birmingham, England.

1 portrait in the collection

Frederick Cato, 1932

W B McInnes

Gift in memory of Frederick John Cato Kumm 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

George Richmond

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

Henry Mundy

Artist Henry Mundy arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 and took up a position as teacher of drawing, French and music at Ellinthorp Hall, a school near Ross established ‘with a view to the improvement of Young Ladies’.

4 portraits in the collection

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre and Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre

Hans Eworth

Eugene Goossens, c. 1954

Portrait, brush and ink, gouache on paper

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

Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, 1971

Andrew Sibley

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Joseph Banks, 1802

William Ridley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Rosemary Madigan

Rosemary Madigan (1926–2019) was one of Australia's most respected sculptors.

3 portraits in the collection

C.H.T. Costantini

Charles Henry Theodore Costantini (also Constantine, Constantini and Costantine) was a Paris-born surgeon of Italian descent who was twice transported to the Australian colonies in the 1820s.

1 portrait in the collection

Geoffrey Burnstock AC

Geoffrey Burnstock AC (1929–2020), neuroscientist, played a key role in the discovery of the molecule ATP as neurotransmitter, with important implications for the treatment of conditions including cancer, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.

2 portraits in the collection

To coin a (farewell) phrase

Devotion

A penny for their thoughts

Edward William Knox Jnr

Edward William Knox (1847-1933), industrialist, was the second of four surviving sons of Sir Edward Knox, founder of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co, and his wife Martha Rutledge (sister of merchant, banker and settler William Rutlege).

3 portraits in the collection

Francis Nixon

Portrait, brush and ink, gouache and watercolour on paper

Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879) photographer, artist and Anglican clergyman, arrived in Hobart in 1843 to take up the role of Bishop of Tasmania.

2 portraits in the collection

Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, 1971

Andrew Sibley

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

A handful of sand

Magazine article by Ellen Kent, 2007

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

Thilin-Thilin Gooragall Nyajaringil Garnkiny-nu (white gum tree, mother for the moon), 2018 by Shirley Purdie

Storytelling

The fourth row of paintings interweave Ngarranggarni, memories, relationships and Country.

Dan Sultan

Dan Sultan (b. 1983), Arrernte/Gurindji singer/songwriter, grew up in Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior of N.S.W.

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior of N.S.W., 1836

William Fernyhough

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Peter Allen, 1980

William Yang

Purchased 2003

Sir Francis Forbes KNt

Sir Francis Forbes (1784–1841) was the first chief justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

1 portrait in the collection

2013-14 Acquisition Fund

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.

Paul Kelly, 2007

Peter Brew-Bevan

Gift of the artist 2012

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew, early 1880s

Hills & Saunders

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

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

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

Wesley Stacey

Wesley Stacey (1941–2023), photographer, was an apprentice silk screener and studied drawing and design at East Sydney Technical College in the early 1960s before working as a graphic designer and photographer in Sydney and London.

3 portraits in the collection

Thomas Archbold, Durham, 1826 by John Dempsey

Street fare

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

The late Georgian and early Victorian working classes often bought their food in ale-houses, chop-houses and ‘penny pie shops’, or purchased their meals day after day in the streets.

Black tie or wombat: How formal should I go?

Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.

Paul Kelly, 2004

Jon Campbell

Portrait, synthetic polymer and enamel paint on canvas

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004

Neville and Jill Wran - as the Duke and Duchess of Sydney (with apologies to Piero della Francesca), 1983

Frank Hodgkinson

Portrait, oil on canvas (diptych)

Gift of Mrs Kate Hodgkinson 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Tom E Lewis [Balang T E Lewis], n.d.

Juno Gemes

Purchased 2021

Sir Richard Owens

The Lives of Barry Humphries

Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892), naturalist, anatomist and palaeontologist, was born in Lancaster and apprenticed to surgeon-apothecaries there before completing his studies in medicine in Edinburgh and London.

1 portrait in the collection

Rarely Everage

Previous exhibition, 2002

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

Portrait Paintings by Matthew Perceval

Previous exhibition, 2007

From 1967 until 1981 Matthew Perceval lived and painted in France and during those years produced a large body of portrait paintings.

Headspace 3

Being Me

Previous exhibition, 2002

The self-portrait enables students to explore emerging and changing aspects of their own identity, their sense of self, their place in the world, their experience of being human

Martha Kermode, c. 1840

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Robert Kermode, c. 1840

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Annie May Moore

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

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

5 portraits in the collection

The first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America, 1878

A & G Taylor

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Lady Mary Hay

Lady Hay, née Chalmers (c. 1806-1892) was reported at the time of her death to have been about ten years older than Hay.

1 portrait in the collection

Reinis Zusters

Portrait, natural ochre and pigments on canvas (36 parts)

Reinis Zusters studied art briefly in Germany before arriving in Australia as a Latvian refugee in 1950.

2 portraits in the collection

Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe, 2018

Shirley Purdie

Purchased 2019

Ethel Anderson

Ethel Anderson (née Mason, 1883-1958), writer and artist, was an important figure in the Sydney modern art scene of the 1920s and 30s.

2 portraits in the collection

Vali Myers

Vali Myers (1930-2003) artist, vagabond and agitator, was born near Box Hill and moved to Melbourne at the age of eleven.

1 portrait in the collection

Joan Kerr

Joan Kerr (1938-2004), art historian, writer and lecturer, was responsible for several key reference texts on Australian art.

1 portrait in the collection

Jenny Howard

an unknown artist after Sir Joshua Reynolds

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

Portrait of Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1770

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018

2014-15 Acquisition Fund

Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.

Adam Scott: at Sanctuary Cove Golf Course

Adam Scott: at Sanctuary Cove Golf Course, 2006

Robin Sellick

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006

Portrait of Henry Kendall, c. 1890-1894

S. Milbourn Jnr

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Wilfred John Peisley

Wilfrid John Peisley, born in Bathurst, won a number of prizes at regional shows before gaining a scholarship to the East Sydney Technical College at the age of seventeen.

1 portrait in the collection

Seeing stars

Celebrating Science Week

It has been suggested that Sir Thomas Brisbane’s interest in the New South Wales governorship was as attributable to his passion for astronomy as to the desirability of the position as a prestigious career move.

Kym Bonython

Hugh Reskymer 'Kym' Bonython AC DFC AFC (1920-2011), company director, art dealer, jazz authority, music promoter and speedway entrepreneur, was one of the most significant collectors and dealers of contemporary Australian art in the post-war period.

2 portraits in the collection

Sue Ford 1980-2006, 1980-2006 (printed 2013)

Ruth Maddison

Purchased 2013

Hardtmuth Lahm

Portrait, oil on canvas board

Hardtmuth Lahm (1912-1981), commercial artist and cartoonist, came to Australia from Estonia as a sixteen-year-old.

1 portrait in the collection

Geoffrey Tozer, 1966

Rollo Thomson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Geoffrey Tozer 2012

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.

Kev Carmody

Acclaimed singer songwriter and activist Kevin Daniel Carmody (Kev Carmody) is a Bundjalung/Lama Lama man born in Cairns in 1946.

2 portraits in the collection

William Robertson, c. 1852

Portrait, 1/6 plate daguerreotype, hand coloured with case

Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Jules Poret de Blosseville

Jules Poret de Blosseville (1802-1833), geographer, navigator and explorer, was a junior officer on the Coquille, which, under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey, conducted a voyage to Oceania and South America between 1822 and 1825.

1 portrait in the collection

Frederick Cato

Frederick Cato (1858-1935), grocer and philanthropist, was born in a tent at Pleasant Creek (Stawell), to the Scottish wife of an English gold miner.

1 portrait in the collection

Ngarranggarni

Portrait Photography from the Collection

The third row of paintings come from Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).

In the mirror: self portrait with Joy Hester

Depth of Field

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2012

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.

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.

Aldershot Cavalry (Major General Reginald Talbot)

Hon. Sir Reginald Talbot KCB

Portrait, oil and oil pastel on canvas

The Hon Sir Reginald Talbot KCB (1841-1929), army officer and English MP, was governor of Victoria from April 1904 to July 1908.

1 portrait in the collection

Lloyd Rees at the Rock in 1975, 1984

Roderick Shaw

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Henry Kendall

Henry (Thomas Henry) Kendall (1839-1882) was once regarded as the finest poet Australia had produced.

1 portrait in the collection

Danila Vassilieff

Danila Vassilieff, born in Russia, arrived in Australia in the early 1920s having served in a Cossack cavalry regiment, been captured by Communist forces and escaped via Persia and India to China.

1 portrait in the collection

Queenie McKenzie Nakara, 1997

Greg Weight

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

Tom Durkin

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Thomas Coleman Durkin trained at the Williamstown School of Design and started work in Melbourne as an apprentice to an engraver and then a jeweller.

27 portraits in the collection

Husbands and Wives

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior, c. 1836

William Fernyhough

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Dr Sarah Engledow

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

Sir James Dowling

Sir James Dowling (1787-1844), judge, worked as a parliamentary reporter before he was called to the Bar in London in May 1815.

1 portrait in the collection

Gordon Powell AM KCSJ

Gordon Powell AM KCSJ (1911-2005) Presbyterian minister, broadcaster and writer, is regarded as one of the most influential Australian Presbyterians.

1 portrait in the collection

William Barak

Maurice Felton

Maurice Appleby Felton (1803-1842) arrived in Sydney with his wife and four children in late 1839 as surgeon to the immigrant ship the Royal Admiral.

3 portraits in the collection

Self portrait, 1934

Nora Heysen AM

Photographic Portraiture in Australia

Purchased 1999

Dr G Yunupingu

Magazine article, 2017

Dr G Yunupingu (1970-2017), a man of the Gumatj clan of north-east Arnhem Land, learned to play guitar, keyboard, drums and didgeridoo as a child.

Mirror With A Memory

Previous exhibition, 2000

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

Wes Stacey, Kurnell, Sydney, 1973 (printed 2000)

David Moore

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
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

Geoffrey Tozer

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

Geoffrey Tozer (1954-2009), pianist, achieved national fame as a child prodigy in the 1960s.

1 portrait in the collection

Picture this...

This edited version of a speech by Andrew Sayers examines some of the antecedents of the National Portrait Gallery and set out the ideas behind the modern Gallery and its collection.

Goollabal (Rainbow Serpent), 2018 by Shirley Purdie

Memories

The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.

Steve Irwin, 2005

Robin Sellick

Magazine article by Phil Manning, 2017

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Thomas Mathewson (inset) and his studio on Queen Street, c. 1908 by Thomas Mathewson & Co

Northern exposure

Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.

Michelle Simmons AO

Previous exhibition, 2008

Michelle Simmons AO (b. 1967), 2018 Australian of the Year, is a pioneer in atomic electronics and quantum computing.

1 portrait in the collection

Self Portrait (Textanude) by Arlene TextaQueen

Animated

Self Portraits Online

Animated is the National Portrait Gallery's first online exhibition.

Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE, 2007

Jude Rae

Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007

Jeremiah Ware

Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mary Ware

Portrait, brush and ink, pen and ink, stencil cut-out with watercolour highlights on paper

Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.

1 portrait in the collection

MacKenzie family silhouette, 1846

Samuel Metford

Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007

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.

Dr Arthur Martin a'Beckett

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Dr Arthur Martin a’Beckett FRCS (1812-1871) surgeon and New South Wales parliamentarian studied at London University from 1831 before undertaking a residency in Paris, centre for innovation in the practice of hygiene, pathological anatomy and physiopathology.

2 portraits in the collection

Howard Taylor, 1988 (printed 2001)

John Austin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Howard Taylor, 1988 (printed 2001)

John Austin

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Heartfelt

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.

Patrick White and Manoly Lascaris, 1987

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

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

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney

Heads of the People

Previous exhibition, 2000

For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history

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.

Patrick White #1, 1980

William Yang

Previous exhibition, 2023

Purchased 1998

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

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.

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

Shane Warne, 2006

Robin Sellick

Purchased 2006

Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, Governor of South Australia

Sir William F. Jervois

Previous exhibition, 2006

Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (1821-1897), governor, attended the Royal Military Academy before being commissioned to the Royal Engineers in 1839.

1 portrait in the collection

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.

John Piper

Piper (life dates unknown), also known as John Piper, was a Wiradjuri man who acted as a guide to Thomas Mitchell’s surveying expedition along the Murray and Darling Rivers into present-day Victoria in 1836.

2 portraits in the collection

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt

Magazine article by India Bednall, 2015

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

Dan the man

Martin Philbey’s portrait of Dan Sultan.

Masters of Fare

Chefs, winemakers, providores

Previous exhibition, 2018

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.

Collection: Icons

Volume One

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.

Clifton Pugh

Australians

Previous exhibition, 2005

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.

Making Portraits

Five Years of National Portrait Gallery Commissions

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

TW Edgeworth David and Vilhjalmur Stefansson

TW Edgeworth David and Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 1924

Annie May Moore

Previous exhibition, 2009

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

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.

Thomas Gainsborough, c.1758-59 by Thomas Gainsborough

Keep it in the family

Magazine article by David Solkin, 2019

David Solkin ponders the provocations and inspirations of the enigmatic Thomas Gainsborough.

Australian of the Year

Inspiring a Nation

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

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.

John Connell

John Connell (c. 1759–1849), free settler, merchant and landowner, came to New South Wales aboard the Earl Cornwallis, which arrived in Sydney in June 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

Ada E. Evans

Magazine article by Sandy Nairne, 2006

Ada Emily Evans (1872–1947) was the first Australian woman to attain a law degree and the first woman admitted to the Bar in New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Why do painted portraits still matter?

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

Elizabeth Lewis

Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mortimer Lewis

Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Icons

Parliament House

Touring exhibition, 2019

Hon Tom Hughes KC, 2001

Jiawei Shen

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Bathing woman, Bridlington, c.1825 by John Dempsey

Allow me to introduce...

These full-length figures in watercolour, gouache and pencil date mostly from the 1820s, and almost all come from the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.

Henry Baynton Somer Gullett AM MC

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

Henry Baynton Somer ‘Jo’ Gullett AM MC (1914-1999), soldier, politician, ambassador, farmer and author, was the son of Sir Henry Gullett, who was one of the Australian official historians of the First World War.

1 portrait in the collection

In a glance

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portrait of Ninette Dutton by Bette Mifsud.

Fits of delicacy and despair

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.

Mrs Elizabeth Lewis, c. 1830

Portrait, watercolour on ivory

Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

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.

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.

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

W & D Downey

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

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

Alfredo Esquillo Jr

by Patrick D. Flores

Artist essays

Born in Manila in 1972, Alfredo Esquillo Jr majored in painting at University of Santo Thomas.

The consolations of religion

A bushranger meets his maker, 6 January 1826

James McCabe provides proof that hanging wasn’t necessarily a fate reserved for the perpetrators of murder and other deeds of darkest hue.

John Flaus

Archived media releases 2020

John Flaus (b. 1934) is an Australian broadcaster, actor, script editor and lecturer, known for Mary and Max (2009), Trust Frank (2020) and Tracks (2013).

1 portrait in the collection

Presenting… Shirley Purdie’s Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

Wednesday 27 May 2020

The National Portrait Gallery this week launches an online exhibition of Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe to coincide with Reconciliation Week.

Leigh Bowery, 1984

Robyn Beeche

Previous exhibition, 2023

Gift of Claudia Hyles, Dr Christiane Lawin-Bruessel, Gwenda Matthews, Gael Newton, Anne O'Hehir, Susan Smith and Dominic Thomas in memory of our friend, Robyn Beeche 2016

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

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.

Monument to Mrs. Moore St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool, Sydney

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

Brenda L Croft, Prue Hazelgrove, Richard Crampton

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.

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

Portrait, original wet plate collodion process tintype, digital scan to Ultrachrome pigment on paper

Purchased 2023

Little treasures

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2002

The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.

To Look Within

Self Portraits in Australia

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

William Francis King, 'The Flying Pieman'

William Francis King, 'The Flying Pieman', c. 1869

John Davis

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2008

Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2010

Form and reality

A photographic portrait by Kerry Dundas captures the contemplative mind of visionary painter Godfrey Miller.

First Ladies

Significant Australian Women 1913–2013

Previous exhibition, 2013

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

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.

The Tichborne Claimant (Arthur Orton), c. 1872

Maull & Co Photographers

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Two pair

Magazine article by Dr Jacqui Strecker, 2008

Stuttgart's Art Museum is showing Otto Dix portraits alongside artists from Lucas Cranach to Andy Warhol.

Hattie Shepparde, 1872

Bardwell's Royal Studio

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

Sir Charles Nicholson

Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903), statesman, landowner, businessman, connoisseur, scholar and physician, was born illegitimately into unpropitious circumstances in Yorkshire.

2 portraits in the collection

Crikey!

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2002

Robin Sellick captured a rare moment of quietude from the late conservation star Steve Irwin.

123 Faces

Magda Keaney examines the 123 Faces project by Simon Obarzanek.

L. Gordon Darling AC CMG

31 August 2015

Archived media releases 2015

The Chairman, Board, Director and all the Staff of the National Portrait Gallery mourn the loss of our Founding Patron, who died peacefully in Melbourne this morning. He was 94.

Trumble's way

Magazine article by Aimee Board, 2017

At the end of a summer break one is tempted to say that there is nothing much to report. Isn’t one restful holiday very much like another?

Progressive pictures

Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.

Nicholas Chevalier, c. 1867

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

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

Storied portrait

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.

Duty bound

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.

Nikhil Chopra

by Rattanamol Johal

Artist essays

Nikhil Chopra was born in 1974, in Calcutta. His first degree was in commerce, but in 1997 he took up fine art studies, eventually gaining a Masters in Fine Art from Ohio State University, United States.

Mal Meninga, 2018

by Peter Hudson

Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018

Michelle Simmons, 2018

by Selina Ou

Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018

Sydney city (Patrick White and Tom Uren, Hiroshima Day demonstration), 1984

The activist A-list

Magazine article by Dimity Goldie, 2003

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.

Portrait of a Modernist

The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.

Anna F. Walker

Anna Frances Walker (1830–1913), botanical artist and collector, was one of the thirteen children of Thomas Walker, a high-ranking colonial public servant, and his wife Anna Elizabeth, the daughter of merchant and landowner John Blaxland.

1 portrait in the collection

Wylie

Wylie (c. 1824–unknown) is thought to have been born near King George’s Sound in south-west Western Australia, which would make him a Noongar man.

1 portrait in the collection

Richard Flanagan

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Richard Flanagan (b. 1961) was born in Longford in northern Tasmania, the second youngest of the six children of Archie Flanagan, a primary school principal, and his wife Helen.

1 portrait in the collection

More cash than dash

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

The Stories Beneath

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

The Alcoa World Alumina Australia gift.

Wylie, 1840-1841

Robert Neill

Portrait, steel engraving with later hand-colouring on paper

Purchased 2018

Alternative virtue

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.

In a good paddock

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2011

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

Reflections on portraiture

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

An extract from the 2004 Nuala O'Flaaherty Memorial Lecture at the Queen Victoria Musuem and Art Gallery in Launceston in which Andrew Sayers reflects on the unique qualities of a portrait gallery.

Goods and chattels

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2009

I have been reading systematically through the ads in the earliest issues of the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, such a rich vein of information about certain aspects of daily life in Regency Sydney.

I walk the line

Bruce Petty's animated self portrait captures a life's journey compressed into a few minutes.

Painters' paradise

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2007

Andrew Sayers feels the warmth in the paintings Matthew Perceval made while the sun shone in southern France.

Portrait of a patron

A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.

Lustre, held by a Groom, ca. 1762 by George Stubbs

Stubbs and the horse

One of the chief aims of George Stubbs, 1724–1806, the late Judy Egerton’s great 1984–85 exhibition at the Tate Gallery was to provide an eloquent rebuttal to Josiah Wedgwood’s famous remark of 1780: “Noboby suspects Mr Stubs [sic] of painting anything but horses & lions, or dogs & tigers.”

Grateful admiration and brotherly love

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.

Cooey! An Australian Song

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

"Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey—Love has caught the strain, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey—it whispers back again." The “Australian lady” who composed these fruity lyrics was none other than Desda— Jane Davies, sometime Messiter (née Price) of Leddicott, Lavender Bay.

Mary (or Diana) Croker, mat woman, Colchester, 1823 by John Dempsey

Unknown drawer

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

Good, bad and the ugly

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.

Shadows of light

Magazine article by Mark Haworth-Booth, 2002

Mark Haworth-Booth explains why Bill Brandt is one of the most important British photographers of the Twentieth Century.

Nambin (black headed python), 2018 by Shirley Purdie

Skin names

The first row of paintings depict stories relating to kinship, introducing significant women relatives.

Inditchenous beestes of New Olland

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2009

A remarkable undated drawing by Edward Lear (1812–88) blends natural history and whimsy.

In the round

Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.

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.

All dressed up

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

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

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Honour board

Hide/Seek

Magazine article by David Ward, 2010

David Ward writes about the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington.

Dr Edward MacMahon, 1959 by William Dobell

Bill and Ted's excellent portrait.

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2016

Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.

Murray frees himself from straightjacket in public, 1928 by Sam Hood

Risky business

Magazine article by John Zubrzycki, 2016

John Zubrzycki lauds the characters of the Australian escapology trade.

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

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

William Shakespeare, c. 1600-1610 associated with John Taylor

Take thy face hence

Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.

Showing character

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.

Friends and Acquaintances

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

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

The Conciliation, 1840 by Benjamin Duterrau

The art of conciliation

Magazine article by Gareth Knapman, 2017

Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.

Paper weight

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

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

Sydney Cove medallion, 1789 by Josiah Wedgwood

The medallion

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.

200 Years of Portraiture

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2010

To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.

Subtle emotion

Christopher Chapman considers photographer Rozalind Drummond's portrait of author Nam Le.

Depth of Field

Magazine article by Lauren Dalla, 2004

The exhibition Depth of Field displays a selection of portrait photographs that reflect the strength and diversity of Australian achievement.

Apollo's breath

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2016

Christopher Chapman delights in the intimacy of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography

Of jumpers and river gums, red

Magazine article by Diana O'Neil, 2016

Diana O’Neil on Noel Counihan’s vivid 1971 portrait of Alan Marshall.

Living landscape

Magazine article by Gillian Raymond, 2016

Gillian Raymond ponders landscapes as self-portraiture in Michael Taylor’s intimate expressionism.

Support Crew

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2011

Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.

Cover, first minute book of the Tasmanian Society of Natural History

Embrace your inner nerd

The southern winter has arrived. For people in the northern hemisphere (the majority of humanity) the idea of snow and ice, freezing mist and fog in June, potentially continuing through to August and beyond, encapsulates the topsy-turvidom of our southern continent.

Little John of Colchester, a poor lunatic, c.1823 by John Dempsey

Dempsey's people

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

Those of you who are active in social media circles may be aware that through the past week I have unleashed a blitz on Facebook and Instagram in connection with our new winter exhibition Dempsey’s People: A Folio of British Street Portraits, 1824−1844.

Facing Australia, Composite portrait: Facing St Lucia, 2003

Conflicting images

Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.

Hearts of Darkness

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2006

The National Portrait Gallery's acquisition of the portrait of Edward John Eyre by pioneering English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

The Philosophy of Teapots and Ducks

Magazine article by Gillian Raymond, 2005

Cartoonist Michael Leunig's insights into the human condition and current affairs have become famous Australia-wide.

Big bouquet of Blackmans

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.

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.

The fat of the land

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

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

Top shot that

Magazine article by Gideon Haigh, 2009

Gideon Haigh discusses portraits of Australian cricketers from the early 20th century

School portraits

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

Mural of Italian/Roman actress Anna Magnani (1908–1973) with face mask, April 2020 Unknown artist

Of plague and portraits

Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.

Christmas Island

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2011

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.

Sandor Ferenczis 50th birthday dinner, Budapest, 1923

Less than six degrees of separation

Anne Sanders finds connections in Inner Worlds between Hungarian expatriates and the development of psychoanalysis in Australia.

Vanity fair

Magazine article by Ashleigh Wadman, 2012

Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

Exhibition introduction

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

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.

Cachasunghia, Osage Warrior 1804–06 by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

Political profiles

Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.

In the galleries

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2009

Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.

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

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush

Magazine article by Sven Knudsen, 2018

Some years ago my colleague Andrea Wolk Rager and I spent several days in the darkened basement of a Rothschild Bank, inspecting every one of the nearly 700 autochromes created immediately before World War I by the youthful Lionel de Rothschild.

Royal Solomon Islands Police Force recruits, Maranatha Hall, Honiara by Sean Davey

The art of peace

Sean Davey captures the portrait of a nation renewed.

An Australian story

Magazine article by The Hon. Dr Kevin Rudd, 2009

In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.

The bright-eyed Mariner

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

A new colonial portrait brings a zealous captain near.

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

Portraiture in a Bleak House

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2017

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.

Portrait of William Manning, c.1821 by Henry Bone

Of beef in burgundy

Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.

Eating the seasons

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2019

Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.

Director John Duigan and actor Judy Davis on the set of ‘Winter of our Dreams’, Sydney, 1981 by Robert McFarlane

Natural born stiller

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

Penelope Grist speaks to Robert McFarlane about shooting for the stars.

The mind's eye

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2017

Christopher Chapman takes a trip through the doors of perception, arriving at the junction of surrealism and psychoanalysis.

A Family Being Served with Tea, ca. 1745 by an unknown artist

A reflection on conversation pieces

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2015

There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.

William Charles Wentworth -The Australian Patriot

The Wentworths – Hidden in Plain Sight

Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.

Self-portrait in white jacket , 1901-02 Hugh Ramsay

Wunderkind lost

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2021

Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.

Yellow portrait (portrait of Alex Jelinek)

Fugue in Yellow

Magazine article by Roger Benjamin, 2015

Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.

Profile of a marriage

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

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.

Australia’s great internationalists

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

Unbuttoning uniforms

Magazine article by Sharon Peoples, 2017

Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.

Costantini's convictions

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2017

Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.

You beauty

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

First-Class Marksman, 1946 by Sidney Nolan

Money for Myth

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2015

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

Mugshots

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

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

The Dissecting Room

Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

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

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.

A sketch for some portraits

Magazine article by Judith Pugh, 2005

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

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

Waterfall in Australia, c. 1830 by Augustus Earle

Augustus serendipitous

The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825.

Thrown together

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.

The artist and her family, c. 1854 by Martha Berkeley

Presence and absence

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.

Untitled #21/09 (after Ricci, 1700; featuring Matthew Mitcham)

Getting bare

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2015

How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.

Portrait of a Pioneer , 1917
Violet Teague

Off her own bat

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.

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.

Omai, Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, 1775-76

First encounters

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

Secure the shadow ere the substance fade

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.

Regarding Henrys

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.

An evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

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

The shipwright's arms

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.

Helen Blaxland judging flower arrangements, c. 1940s photographer unknown

Petal to the mettle

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.

The personal and the historical

NPPP 2014 exhibition essay

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.

The Art Lovers - Megan, 2013 by Gary Grealy

Everybody, look serious

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

The Bare story

Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be

Inner Worlds and psychoanalysis

Lecture, 4 June 2011

Inner Worlds evokes a broad view of psychology as a discipline. However, the specific interests of the practitioners whose portraits are included in the exhibition incorporate specialist areas including psychoanalysis.

The art of Inner Worlds

Lecture, 7 May 2011

Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.

Some prime ministers

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

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay