Search / victoria 20baker

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

8 portraits in the collection

The First Legislative Council of Victoria was formed following Victoria’s separation from New South Wales in July 1851.

1 portrait in the collection

The Photographic Society of Victoria, Melbourne

Portrait, albumen silver cabinet card photograph on card

The Photographic Society of Victoria was formed in 1876 to 'bring photographers together in a friendly spirit, in order to advance the art and science of photography in the colony, without any attempt at binding or dictating to members any special trading rules, such as charges for photographs or hours or days for closing or opening their respective establishments.' At the time of the first annual meeting on 9 March 1877 there were 61 members, five whom were ladies.

1 portrait in the collection

The latest portrait of Her Majesty Queen Victoria

The latest portrait of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, c. 1896

John Thomson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Her Majesty, 1860

John J. Mayall

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased 2020

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

Queen of cartes

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

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

Her Majesty seated, 1860

John J. Mayall

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased 2020

A nation mourns the loss, c. 1861

Portrait, lithograph in carte de visite format on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Queen Victoria in mourning, with a portrait of Prince Albert

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

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

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Thomas Pearce, c. 1878

The Photographic Society of Victoria, Melbourne

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite on card

Purchased 2010

A Cimiez. Promenade matinale (Queen Victoria)

A Cimiez. Promenade matinale (Queen Victoria), 1897

Jean Baptiste Guth, Vanity Fair Magazine

The Illustrated London News after Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant

Purchased 2015

Queen Victoria, 1901

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Queen Victoria, 1860-1865

Post Office Photographic Studio, Melbourne after John J. Mayall

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Opening of the First Legislative Council of Victoria by Governor Charles Joseph LaTrobe at St Patrick's Hall, Bourke Street West, Melbourne November 13th 1851, 1883

John Noone after William Strutt

Portrait, photolithograph on paper

Purchased 2013

William Clark Haines, Premier of Victoria (Plate 12)

William Clark Haines, Premier of Victoria (Plate 12), 1857-1858

Antoine Fauchery, Richard Daintree

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on laid on cardboard

Purchased 2014

Sir Henry Barkly KCB, Governor of the Colony of Victoria (Plate 1)

Sir Henry Barkly KCB, Governor of the Colony of Victoria (Plate 1), 1858

Antoine Fauchery, Richard Daintree

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on paper laid on cardboard

Purchased 2014

Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria

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

Thomas Clark

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

Queen Victoria

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

Leonard French, Heathcote, Victoria, 1969 (printed 2000)

Portrait, composite albumen photograph on paper

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

The Explorers & Early Colonists of Victoria

The Explorers & Early Colonists of Victoria, 1872

Thomas Foster Chuck

Purchased 2018

David Moore, Corio, Victoria, 1942 (printed 2000)

Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001.

Fred Williams, Upwey, Victoria, 1963 (printed 2000)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001.

Hal Porter, Port Fairy, Victoria, 1969 (printed 2000)

An Ex-Treasurer. "Ultra-Protection!" [Graham Berry, Premier of Victoria], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Vice-Royalty. "A Quoter of Poetry" [George Bowen, Governor of Victoria], 1873

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

A Politician. "He is a Terror to Dummies' [Sir William Foster Stawell, Chief Justice of Victoria], 1873

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Brad 'Gaggsy' Gallagher at a Bachelor and Spinsters Ball, Tooradin, Victoria, 2016

by Ingvar Kenne

Sir Samuel Wilson

Sir Samuel Wilson was elected to the British House of Commons in 1886.

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

William Howitt

William Howitt (1792–1879), author, arrived in Victoria in 1852 having worked as a farmer, druggist, alderman and writer in England.

1 portrait in the collection

Thinking of England

Passion

Truly, madly, deeply

Keith Miller

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Keith Miller MBE (1919-2004) was Australia's greatest cricketing all-rounder.

1 portrait in the collection

Statesmen No. 20 "A Returned Colonist" (Rt Hon. Hugh C.E. Childers), 1869

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

Batchelder & O'Neill

The American brothers Perez Mann, Benjamin and Nathaniel Batchelder worked in Victoria and New South Wales in the 1850s and 1860s.

9 portraits in the collection

Ernest Buckmaster

Ernest Buckmaster grew up in country Victoria, where his facility for art was recognised early on.

1 portrait in the collection

William Barak at work on the drawing ‘Ceremony’ at Coranderrk

Beruk

Beruk (William Barak) (1824-1903), an elder of the Wurundjeri clan of the Woi-worung, was the most famous Aboriginal person in Victoria in the 1890s.

1 portrait in the collection

The Hon. Alex Chernov AC QC, 2019

Anne Middleton

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Round the World (Thomas Brassey), 1877

Purchased 2015

The Hon. Alex Chernov AC KC, 2019

Anne Middleton

Portrait, oil on linen

Gift of twenty members of the Victorian Bar 2020

James Mollison, c. 1973 (printed 2004)

Wesley Stacey

Gift of James Mollison AO 2004

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE (1909–2012), philanthropist, was the widow of Sir Keith Murdoch and mother of the publisher, Rupert Murdoch.

1 portrait in the collection

William Strutt

William Strutt arrived in Melbourne in 1850 having undertaken his training in art in Paris in the late 1830s.

1 portrait in the collection

Sam Jinks

Born in Bendigo, Victoria, Sam Jinks’ work can be found in various public collections that include the Kiran Nader Museum of Art, Dehli, India and the Museo Escultura Figurativa Internacional Contemporaenea (MEFIC), Portugal.

Portrait of Professors Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis

Margaret Gardner AC

Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery

Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC is the 30th Governor of Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm

Uncommon Australians

Touring exhibition, 1992

In 1988 philanthropists Gordon and Marilyn Darling decided to make an Australian portrait gallery a reality, overseeing the development of the 1992 touring exhibition Uncommon Australians.

Doug Gimesy

Douglas Gimesy, conservation and wildlife photographer, graduated in zoology and microbiology before gaining master’s degrees in both bioethics and environment.

1 portrait in the collection

Karen Quinlan AM

Karen Quinlan AM took up her appointment as Director of the National Portrait Gallery in December 2018. Karen commenced her curatorial career in 1994 at National Gallery of Victoria before becoming Curator of Bendigo Art Gallery in 1996, and the Director of Bendigo Art Gallery from 2000 until 2018. Karen was a Professor of Practice and previously Director of the La Trobe Art Institute La Trobe University, a former Trustee of the State Library of Victoria, Board Member and former Chair of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria.

James Mollison AO

James Mollison AO (1931–2020) was the inaugural director of the National Gallery of Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Angela Brennan

Portrait, pastel on paper

Angela Brennan (b. 1960) is a highly regarded contemporary Australian painter and ceramicist.

1 portrait in the collection

The Colonel (Portrait of Walter Withers)

The Colonel (Portrait of Walter Withers), 1896

David Davies

Purchased 2009

Portrait of Mrs Sarah Fairfax, c. 1864

Edwin Dalton

Portrait, pastel on paper laid on canvas

Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Rozalind Drummond

Tough & Tender

Samuel Bellin after Francis Grant

The photographs in Tough & tender by Rozalind Drummond evoke individual freedom and personal reflection.

Charles Joseph La Trobe, c. 1857

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Purchased 2010

Sir James Gobbo, 1983

Paul Fitzgerald AM

Gift of Mercy Health and Aged Care 2006

George Nicholas CBE

George Nicholas CBE (1884-1960), pharmacist and philanthropist, grew up in South Australia and Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Sidney Nolan

Sir Sidney Nolan AC OM CBE (1917–1992) was one of the most original and inventive Australian artists of the postwar decades, and one of few Australian artists to achieve an international reputation in the twentieth century.

7 portraits in the collection

Hayward Veal

Hayward 'Bill' Veal was born in Eaglemont, Victoria, and studied in Melbourne with AD Colquhoun and Max Meldrum between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.

1 portrait in the collection

Hon. John A. Wallace

John Alston Wallace (1824–1901), storekeeper, hotelier and mining entrepreneur, came to Melbourne in 1852 to try his luck on the goldfields.

1 portrait 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

James Mollison, c. 1973 (printed 2004)

Wesley Stacey

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of James Mollison AO 2004

Francis Tuckfield

Francis Tuckfield (1808-1865), Wesleyan missionary, was eighteen years old when, having worked as a miner and a fisherman, he decided to become a preacher.

1 portrait in the collection

John Noone

John Noone, photographer and lithographer, began advertising the services of his ‘Photographic Establishment’ in the Melbourne Argus in September 1858, and worked from two separate addresses on Collins Street from this time until 1862.

1 portrait in the collection

Allan Lowe

Allan Lowe (1907-2007) is considered to be one of the major ceramic artists of his time particularly in the field of arthenware (lower-fired and more colourful work than stoneware).

1 portrait in the collection

Mick Dodson

Michael (Mick) Dodson AM (b. 1950) is a Yawuru man from the southern Kimberley in Western Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Barry Sullivan, c. 1863

Davies & Co

Purchased 2018

The Member of the Upper House "One of the Olden Time" [The Hon. John Alston Wallace M.L.C.], 1874

Purchased 2016

Athol Shmith, 1985

Michel Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Ruth Maddison

Ruth Maddison began taking photographs in the mid-1970s and exhibited her Christmas Holiday with Bob’s Family – a series of hand-coloured, snapshot-style images mimicking scenes from a family photo album – at Ewing Gallery in Melbourne in 1979.

1 portrait in the collection

William John Wills

Sir Leslie Ward, Vanity Fair Magazine

William John Wills (1834-1861) came to Victoria with his brother in early 1853.

3 portraits in the collection

a squatter (Sir Samuel Wilson), 1885

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

Aldershot Cavalry (Major General Reginald Talbot)

Hon. Sir Reginald Talbot KCB

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

Longest reign

Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-reigning British sovereign

Charles Joseph La Trobe

Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875), colonial administrator, travelled widely in Europe and America before beginning his colonial career in the West Indies in 1837.

3 portraits in the collection

Davida Allen

Davida Allen is a Queensland artist. As a student at Brisbane's Stuartholme School in the 1960s she had Betty Churcher as an art teacher.

2 portraits in the collection

The Reservoir 2, 2016

by Stephanie Rose Simcox

Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie

Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie, 1887

Frederick Woodhouse

Purchased 2008

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson

A charming prospect

Nearest & Dearest

Family fortunes

Lt. A.R.Cutler VC, 1943

Dora Toovey

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

Leonard French

Leonard French OBE (1928-2017) left school at fourteen to become an apprentice signwriter in his native Melbourne.

3 portraits in the collection

De Gruchy & Leigh

De Gruchy & Leigh was a publishing and printing firm operating in Melbourne and regional Victoria from the late 1850s until the mid 1860s.

2 portraits in the collection

Nicholas Chevalier

Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902) was a Russian-born artist who came to the Victorian goldfields in 1855 and stayed in the colony as a cartoonist for Punch.

1 portrait in the collection

Selina Ou

Selina Ou (b. 1977), a Melbourne-based photographer, established her reputation through photographs of figures in urban environments that teem with detail, such as streets, convenience stores, workshops, hardware outlets and pharmacies.

1 portrait in the collection

Erwin Fabian

Erwin Fabian (1915-2020) was a sculptor, industrial designer and graphic artist.

3 portraits in the collection

Peter Dombrovskis

Carl Kahler, Goupil & Cie

Peter Dombrovskis, photographer and environmental activist, was born of Latvian parents in a refugee camp in Wiesbaden at the end of World War 2.

1 portrait in the collection

The Derby Day at Flemington, c. 1890

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

David Aspden

Previous exhibition, 2022

David Aspden (1935-2005), artist, came to Australia from England in 1950.

1 portrait in the collection

WHO ARE YOU

Australian portraiture

Featuring 130 works across painting, film, photography, screen printing, sculpture, and then some – it explores our inner worlds, outer selves, intimacy, isolation, celebrity and more.

Jan Nelson

Jan Nelson was born in Melbourne. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1983 and has been exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia since that time including at the MCA, Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and the Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide.

Juan Ford

by Spencer and Lloyd Harvey

Juan Ford received a Master of Art, by research, from RMIT University in 2001. His many commissions include the National Gallery of Victoria’s interactive work You, me and the flock for Melbourne Now 2013/2014 and a project for Hotel de Immigrantes, a project in Manifesta 9, the European Biennale in 2012.

The Mirror, 2016

Ludwig Becker, 1861

Frederick Schoenfeld

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

Michael Peck

Born in Melbourne in 1977, Michael Peck has a Bachelor of Fine Art (honours) (Painting) from Monash University. He has exhibited as a solo artist since 1998, when he won the National Gallery of Victoria’s Trustees Award.

The shield, 2009

by James Geer

Janet Dawson

Janet Dawson (b. 1935), painter, printer, teacher and stage designer, is known for her contribution to abstract art in Australia.

10 portraits in the collection

Lovely Lillie and Dirty Bertie

Lust

Royal romps: illicit liaisons

Rosalie Gascoigne

Rosalie Gascoigne (1917–1999), artist, came to Australia from New Zealand in 1943 to marry the astronomer Ben Gascoigne.

1 portrait in the collection

Georg von Neumayer

Georg von Neumayer (1826-1909) was a scientist, magnetician, hydrographer, oceanographer and meteorologist.

1 portrait in the collection

Peter, Silverton, NSW, 2012

by Krystal Seigerman

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

Bess Norriss Tait

Bess Norriss Tait (1879-1939), artist, was born in Melbourne and studied under Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School between 1897 and 1901.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Alexander Fuller-Acland-Hood Bart

Portraits of Australian Visual Artists

Sir Alexander Fuller-Acland-Hood Bart MP (1853-1917) was MP for West Somerset from 1892 to 1911, when he was created Lord St Audries.

1 portrait in the collection

The Reflecting Eye

Touring exhibition, 1996

As the first National Portrait Gallery travelling exhibition, The reflecting eye: portraits of Australian visual artists represents an important milestone in the history of Australia's National Portrait Gallery.

Cathryn Fitzpatrick

Toni Wilkinson

Walter Withers

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

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

1 portrait in the collection

Nicholas Chevalier, c. 1867

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

Terry Clune

Goupil & Cie after Carl Kahler

Terry Clune (b. 1932), gallerist, established Terry Clune Galleries with Frank MacDonald at 59 McLeay Street Potts Point in 1957.

1 portrait in the collection

The Lawn at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day

The Lawn at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day, c. 1889

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Purchased 2009

Cathryn Fitzpatrick, 2006

Toni Wilkinson

Portrait, inkjet print

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Robert Edwards, 2009

John Elliott

Commissioned with funds provided by Art Exhibitions Australia 2009

Charles Summers

Portrait, cast bronze on granite base

Charles Summers (1825-1878) was an English born sculptor, who came to Australia in 1852.

2 portraits in the collection

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, 2013 (cast 2016)

Willow Legge

Gift of the artist 2016

The Wobbly Wizard - Isolation Portrait

Suzanne Phoenix

Wayne Lynch

Portrait, albumen photograph on cabinet card

Wayne Lynch (b. 1951), surfer and surfboard shaper, grew up in Lorne, Victoria, not far from Bells Beach.

2 portraits in the collection

The Payne family, 1888-1889

A Flegeltaub

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018

Harold Mitchell AC

Harold Mitchell AC (1942-2024), businessman and philanthropist, left his home town of Stawell at seventeen to become an office boy in a Melbourne advertising agency.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Sidney Kidman

Portrait, oil on cardboard

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

2 portraits in the collection

Self portrait, between 1951 and 1953

Janet Dawson

Gift of the artist 2000

Mary Ware, c. 1854

Robert Dowling

Portrait, oil on canvas on board

Purchased with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy and Rosalind Blair Murphy 2014

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015 finalists announced

17 August 2015

Archived media releases 2015

The National Portrait Gallery have selected the finalists for the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015.

Leonard French, 1980s (printed 2018)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Mr George Watson

George John Watson (1829–1906), racing entrepreneur, was born at Ballydarton in Co.

1 portrait in the collection

Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards AO

Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards AO (1930-2023) made a remarkable contribution to the cultural sector in Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Sidney Kidman and Arthur Triggs, c. 1914

Falk Studios

Batchelder & Company Photo

Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, c. 1870

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

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

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

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

Agnes Goodsir

Born in Portland in south-west Victoria, Agnes Goodsir (1864–1939) initially painted still life before applying herself to the challenge of portraiture.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Henry Brougham Loch

Henry Brougham Loch (1827-1900), governor, served in the British military and was involved in campaigns in India and the Crimea and missions to China.

1 portrait in the collection

Mary Elizabeth Maud Chomley OBE

Mary Elizabeth Maud Chomley OBE (1872–1960) has been described as the 'divine angel of mercy' for Australian prisoners of war during the First World War.

1 portrait in the collection

Hong Fu

Hong Fu was born in China in 1946 and held his first solo exhibition at the National Art Gallery, Beijing, in 1988.

1 portrait in the collection

Archie Roach, 2019

Martin Philbey

Robert Jacks AO

Robert Jacks AO (1943–2014) is acknowledged as one of Australia's leading abstract artists.

1 portrait in the collection

Study for a portrait of Dame Merlyn Myer DBE

Study for a portrait of Dame Merlyn Myer DBE, 1960s

'Self Portrait with Gladioli'

Gift of the Estate of Marion Orme Page 2016

George Lambert

Portrait story

An examination of the life and times of George Lambert through the gesture and pose in his self portrait.

J.C. Williamson, c. 1913

John Longstaff

Gift of the family of Aimée Viola Horsley, daughter of J.C. Williamson 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gwyn Hannsen Pigott

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott AM (1935–2013) was a self-described potter, whose international reputation was built on her exquisite still-life assemblages of refined, spare vessels in subtle colours and shapes.

1 portrait in the collection

Bill Henson AO

Bill Henson AO was only 19 when his photographs were first exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in his home city of Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

William Burman

Previous exhibition, 2003

William Insull Burman came to Victoria in 1853 and worked as a painter and decorator before establishing his own photography business in Carlton in about 1863.

1 portrait in the collection

Headspace 4

Facing Memory

Facing Memory: Headspace 4 provides us with valuable insights into the thoughts, creative processes and art-making practices of secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 from sixty-two schools in the Australian Capital Territory, regional New South Wales and Victoria

Aunty Helen

Charlie Ford

The Cape of Good Hope ( Sir Henry Barkly)

Sir Henry Barkly GCMG KCB

Sir Henry Barkly GCMG KCB (1815-1898) started his career in business and politics before serving terms as governor of British Guiana and then Jamaica.

4 portraits in the collection

Concession and discount policy

Plan your visit

Members ticket discounts, accepted concession cards and special entry.

Christian Waller

Christian Waller (née Yandell, 1894–1954), printmaker, muralist and stained-glass artist, was born in Castlemaine, Victoria and commenced studying art at the Castlemaine School of Mines in 1905.

1 portrait in the collection

Allan Lowe, c. 1955

Reshid Bey

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Alan Lowe and Marian Lowe 2000

William Robertson

William Robertson (1798-1874), pastoralist and entrepreneur, was a key player in the settlement of Victoria in the 1830s.

3 portraits in the collection

Sue Ford

Sue Ford (née Winslow, 1943–2009), photographer, filmmaker and photo-media artist, grew up in the beachside suburbs of Melbourne and became interested in photography while on holiday in Europe at age 17.

2 portraits in the collection

Akira Isogawa, 2001

Peter Brew-Bevan

Gift of the artist 2005

Mr Richard Goldsbrough

Archived media releases 2021

Richard Goldsbrough (1821–1886) was a butcher’s son from Shipley, Yorkshire, who became a leading Australian woolbroker.

1 portrait in the collection

New Chair of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia Board

5 November 2021

The Morrison Government has appointed Mrs Penny Fowler as Chair of the Board of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia (NPGA) for a 3 year term, commencing on 1 January 2022.

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

Martin Grant, 2004

Previous exhibition, 2018

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Carte-o-mania!

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

Gary Foley, Invasion Day - We Have Survived

Gary Foley, Invasion Day - We Have Survived, 1988

Juno Gemes

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

That's not my mother, 2018

by Rosa Voss

Sir George Coles, 1935

W B McInnes

Archived media releases 2019

Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The National Portrait Gallery's Director, Karen Quinlan, receives Australia Day Honour

26 January 2019

The newly appointed Director of the National Portrait Gallery Karen Quinlan, was today recognised in the Australia Day Honours list for her significant service to the visual arts and to higher education.

Becky feeding Hazel, 2012

by Louise Allerton

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on original lithograph title sheet

Australian Aboriginal Cricketers, 1867

Patrick Dawson

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

Between Light and Shadow

Portraits by Stuart Campbell

Previous exhibition, 2011

The late Australian photographer Stuart Campbell produced superb photographs of Australian actors of stage and screen.

Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace

Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace is a Yorta Yorta woman. She studied business at TAFE before working as an accounting officer at the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and as a bookkeeper for a farming business.

1 portrait in the collection

Georg von Neumayer, c. 1860

Johnstone & Co

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

Dame Mabel Brookes, c. 1955

Gift of Rodney Davidson AO OBE 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Edmond John Hogan

Edmond John (Ned) Hogan (1883-1964), farmer and premier, left school early and engaged in road-making, timber-cutting, farm-labouring and rabbiting in addition to farm chores at home.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Wentworth Wills

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

2 portraits in the collection

Bruce Armstrong

Bruce Armstrong (1957-2024) was a sculptor, painter, printer and charcoal artist.

2 portraits in the collection

Hugh Adamson

Hugh Adamson (b. 1952), artist, was born in Goroke, Victoria but is a long-time resident of Adelaide.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Rupert Hamer AC KCMG ED

Australian Movie Portraits

Sir Rupert ‘Dick’ Hamer AC KCMG (1916-2004) was premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981.

1 portrait in the collection

Lovers And Luggers : Publicity Shot featuring Shirley Ann Richards Lloyd Hughes And Elaine Hamill (1937)

Starstruck

Previous exhibition, 2017

Striking, beautiful portraiture comes out of the most thoroughly documented creative process there is – filmmaking. In a ground-breaking collaboration the National Portrait Gallery and National Film and Sound Archive invite you into this captivating realm between real and fictional worlds.

Lady Maisie Drysdale

Lady Maisie Drysdale (1915–2001), children's librarian and artists' muse, developed an interest in art as a child, and attended both the University of Melbourne and George Bell's art school.

1 portrait in the collection

Ludwig Becker

Donating to the National Portrait Gallery

Ludwig Becker (1808-1861), was an artist, naturalist and explorer. He was born in Germany and trained as an artist there, and after arriving in Tasmania in 1851 he settled in Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

Private and public ancillary funds

Foundation

Information Sheet for private and public ancillary funds donating to the National Portrait Gallery.

Ronnie Howard still dancing, 2014

by Ivan Gaal

Peter Rushforth AO

Peter Rushforth AO (1920-2015), ceramic artist, was born in Sydney and studied art at the Royal Melbourne Technical College after World War 2.

1 portrait in the collection

Dr Ray Marginson AM

Dr Ray Marginson AM (1923-2019) was Vice-Principal of the University of Melbourne from 1966 to 1988.

1 portrait in the collection

Annie May Moore

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

William Robertson Jnr

Percy Leason's Aboriginal Portraits

William Robertson junior studied at Oxford University and is said to have been the first Australian to row in an Oxford eight, his team victorious in the Boat Race of 1861.

5 portraits in the collection

William Johnson (1873—1948) by Percy Leason

Recognition

Previous exhibition, 1999

Originally conceived as an anthropological record, Percy Leason’s powerful 1934 portraits of Victorian Aboriginal people are today considered to be a highlight of 20th century Australian portraiture

Arnold Shore

Arnold Shore, a lifelong inhabitant of Melbourne, was apprenticed to a stained glass and leadlight company called Brooks, Robinson soon after leaving school at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

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.

Fostin outside his mum's, Kings Park, Melbourne, 2015

by Nicola Dracoulis

Sir Henry Barkly, c. 1863

Portrait, albumen photograph carte de visite on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir Edgar Barton ‘EB’ Coles

Sir Edgar Barton ‘EB’ Coles (1899-1981) was the longest-serving chief executive of the Coles retail group.

2 portraits in the collection

Rev. William Singleton

The Reverend William Singleton (c. 1804-1875), Anglican clergyman, graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1826 and was ordained in the city’s Christ Church Cathedral in 1841.

1 portrait in the collection

Peter Booth

Previous exhibition, 2001

Peter Booth (b. 1940) grew up in the English steel mill town of Sheffield, bike-riding on the nearby moors.

1 portrait in the collection

Nolan Heads

Nolan Heads will focus on the portraiture of one of Australia's most original painters and one of the few to have achieved an international reputation

Paul Boston

Paul Boston (b. 1952), an abstract artist, graduated from art school in Melbourne in 1972.

1 portrait in the collection

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated

Lord Adrian Louis Hope

Lord Adrian Louis Hope was Governor Victoria at the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891.

1 portrait in the collection

Sketch portrait of David Aspden, 1975

Fred Williams

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lyn Williams AM 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Johnny Day

‘The Australian Wonder’, Johnny Day (1856–1885), was an undefeated world-champion juvenile walker.

1 portrait in the collection

Percy Lindsay

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

4 portraits in the collection

Darby McCarthy OAM

Richard 'Darby' McCarthy OAM (1945–2020), former jockey who rode in three Melbourne Cups and won more than 1000 races, is a proud descendant of the Mithaka and Goongurri people of south-west and central Queensland.

1 portrait in the collection

Frederick Schoenfeld

Frederick Schoenfeld was born in Switzerland and came to Australia in 1858 as a trained lthographer.Between 1859 and 1862 he worked as illustator and lithographer for publications prepared by the National Museum of Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur William Burman

Archived media releases 2018

Arthur William Burman was one of the nine children of photographer William Insull Burman (1814-1890), who came to Victoria in 1853.

2 portraits in the collection

Helen Nugent, Karen Quinlan and Angus Trumble

Ms Karen Quinlan appointed to lead the NPGA

25 September 2018

The Board of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia is delighted to announce the appointment of Ms Karen Quinlan as its incoming Director.

Patrick Dawson

Patrick Dawson is believed to have been trained as a surveyor and learnt photography while surveying in Victoria in the 1850s.

1 portrait in the collection

Athol Shmith

Athol Shmith (1914-1990) was a professional photographer specialising in portraiture, branching into the fashion and advertising fields after 1936.

1 portrait 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

William B. Latimer

William Latimer (1851-1934) was a portrait photographer who worked in Melbourne in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

1 portrait in the collection

Master Johnny Day, Australian Champion Pedestrian, c. 1866

Portrait, albumen photograph carte de visite

Purchased 2014

George Pell AC

George Pell AC (1941–2023), former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, was born and educated in Ballarat, Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Craig Tuffin

Craig Tuffin (b. 1969) born in Redcliffe, Queensland, is an artist and educator living on the Tweed Coast.

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

George Perry

George William Perry (1824–1900) was born in London and arrived in Victoria via South Africa around 1852.

2 portraits in the collection

Justin C. Tjungurrayi

Justin Corby Tjungurrayi (b. 1982) is a Luritja artist who was born in Kintore on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

James Tylor

James Tylor (b. 1986) is an Australian multi-disciplinary contemporary visual artist.

1 portrait in the collection

Nathaniel Kinsman

Nathaniel Kinsman (1823–1898), lay preacher, came to Victoria in the late 1840s and set up in business in Fitzroy as a dealer in second-hand furniture.

1 portrait in the collection

Noel Rubie

Noel Rubie (1901–1976) was a painter and photographer who had a portrait and industrial photography studio in Sydney and worked during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

1 portrait in the collection

Akira Isogawa

Akira Isogawa (b. 1964), fashion designer, was born in Kyoto, Japan, and first came to Australia on a working holiday at the age of 21.

2 portraits in the collection

William Clark Haines

William Clark Haines (1810-1866), first premier of Victoria, was educated at Charterhouse and Caius College Cambridge and practised as a surgeon in England before sailing to Victoria in 1842.

1 portrait in the collection

Angus Trumble

Angus Trumble (1964-2022) was born and raised in Melbourne. He studied Fine Arts and History at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1986.

Bill McAuley

Bill McAuley began his career as a photographer for newspapers and magazines in Melbourne in 1969.

9 portraits in the collection

The Migrant, 2017

by Jacqui Stockdale

Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa

Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa (b. c. 1944) is a painter and senior custodian for the Warlpiri people.

1 portrait in the collection

Cardinal George Pell, 2007 (printed 2012)

David Roberts

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Gary Foley

Gary Foley (b. 1950) is a Gumbainggir activist, actor, historian, curator and academic.

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

Philip Hunter

Archived media releases 2015

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

1 portrait in the collection

Sideshow Alley: Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

5 December 2015

Bushrangers, oddities, true crime and scandal come together in this modern day cabinet of curiosities.

Samuel Shelley

Portrait, pencil, pen and ink on paper

Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools as a seventeen year-old in 1774 and exhibited at the Academy regularly from this time until 1804.

2 portraits in the collection

Bob Croll of the AAA Vic., 1916

David Low

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

John Williamson

Archived media releases 2018

John Williamson (b. 1945), singer songwriter, was born and raised in Victoria's Mallee region.

1 portrait in the collection

The Honourable Bob Hawke savouring a strawberry milkshake, 2017 by Harold David

Harold David Takes out the People’s Choice Award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize

8 June 2018

The votes are in and the National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce The Honourable Bob Hawke savouring a strawberry milkshake by Harold David is the people’s choice for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018.

Jon Campbell

Jon Campbell (b. 1961) came to Australia from Northern Ireland as a three-year-old.

2 portraits in the collection

James Scobie

James Scobie (1860-1940), horse trainer, was born at Ararat, Victoria, and at age 20 he rode his first metropolitan jumping winner at Ballarat.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Woolley

Charles Alfred Woolley (1834-1922), photographer and sketcher, ran a studio on Macquarie Street in Hobart from 1859 to 1870, producing numerous portraits along with views and stereographs of Hobart and surrounding areas.

6 portraits in the collection

Sarah Tuckfield

Sarah Tuckfield neé Gilbart (c. 1808–1854), was the daughter of a Cornish farmer.

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

Fred Kruger

Fred Kruger was born in Berlin and came to Victoria around 1860. By 1866 he’d taken up photography, and soon began making his name with landscape photographs, some of which went on to win medals at exhibitions in Vienna, Philadelphia, Melbourne and Geelong.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Mitchell Ramsay

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Andrew Mitchell Ramsay (1809-1869), clergyman, was Melbourne's first Presbyterian minister.

1 portrait in the collection

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

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

Howard Tangye

Archived media releases 2015

Figurative abstract artist and designer Howard Tangye was born in Queensland in 1948 and lived and worked in London from the 1970s until recently.

1 portrait in the collection

Winners announced: Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015

27 August 2015

The winners of the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Awards will be announced tomorrow morning at 10.00am at the National Portrait Gallery.

John Shirlow

John Shirlow (1869-1936) etcher, was the first Australian to make etching the basis of his career.

1 portrait 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

Carl Kahler

Carl Kahler was born in Austria and trained in Munich, Paris and Italy, where he won several important prizes.

2 portraits in the collection

Anna Sande

Anna Sande is a Victorian painter, photographer, curator and writer. With qualifications in art history and political science from the University of Melbourne, she was co-founder and joint co-ordinator of the Women's Art Register Extension Project, established at Carringbush Library in 1977 and now a substantial reference resource on women’s art work.

1 portrait in the collection

Egbert S. Wills

Emily Spencer Wills (1842–1925), Cedric Spencer Wills (1844–1914), Horace Spencer Wills (1847–1928), and Egbert Spencer Wills (1849–1931) the second, third, fourth, and fifth children of Horatio Wills and his wife Elizabeth, were all born at Lexington, spending their childhoods there and at Bellevue, the property acquired by Horatio Wills near Geelong in 1852.

1 portrait in the collection

Horace Spencer Wills and Cedric Spencer Wills

Cedric S. Wills

1 portrait in the collection

Emily S. Wills

1 portrait in the collection

Horace S. Wills

1 portrait in the collection

Kristin Headlam

Kristin Headlam, born in Launceston, completed a BA at the University of Melbourne in the 1970s and studied painting at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1980-1981.

2 portraits in the collection

Candidate for Chelsea (9th Earl of Kintore)

Algernon Hawkins Thomond Keith-Falconer

Algernon Hawkins Thomond Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore (1852–1930) was governor of South Australia from 1889 to 1895.

1 portrait in the collection

Andor Meszaros

Andor Meszaros came to Australia from Hungary in 1939. His son, Michael, was born here.

4 portraits in the collection

Ernest Walter Histed

Ernest Walter Histed was born in Brighton, UK, but made his reputation as a photographer in Chicago and later in Pittsburgh.

1 portrait in the collection

George French Angas

George French Angas (1822-1886) was an artist and shell collector, who published many illustrations of the plants, native animals and peoples of the southern hemisphere.

2 portraits in the collection

Lawrence Bonaventure Sheil OSF

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Lawrence Bonaventure Sheil OSF (1815-1872), Catholic bishop, was educated in Ireland and Rome, where he taught for some time after his ordination in 1839.

3 portraits in the collection

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

Anne Zahalka

Photo media artist Anne Zahalka was born in Sydney in 1957, following her parent’s migration to post-war Australia.

19 portraits in the collection

Paul Fitzgerald AM

Paul Fitzgerald AM, a Melbourne-based artist, made his career as a professional portraitist.

4 portraits in the collection

Chrissy Grishin

Chrissie Grishin (b. 1954), printmaker and painter, exhibits under the name of G W Bot, derived from an eighteenth-century French reference to the wombat as ‘le grand Wam Bot’ and adopted in tribute to the animal with which she has taken as her totem.

1 portrait in the collection

HRH Prince Alfred

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

4 portraits in the collection

Ivan Durrant

Ivan Durrant (b. 1947), painter, sculptor, filmmaker, performance artist and writer, was born in Melbourne.

2 portraits in the collection

Wally (Wouter) De Backer, 2013 (printed 2014)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Peter Singer, 2002

Juliet van Otteren

Gift of Mr and Mrs Wilbur van Otteren 2002

E. Phillips Fox

Between 1887 and 1892 Emanuel Phillips Fox studied and painted in France and England.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Bolte, 1969

Les Tanner, Gus McLaren

Portrait, glazed ceramic

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004

Remembering Ursula

I first knew Dr. Hoff when in 1986, long after retiring from the National Gallery of Victoria, she taught a graduate seminar on Rembrandt.

Paul Boston, 1995

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rick Amor and Meg Williams 2015
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Ursula Hoff AO OBE

Ursula Hoff AO OBE (1909–2005) was a curator, art historian and academic.

1 portrait in the collection

Jeff Kennett

Jeffrey Kennett (b. 1948) was premier of Victoria from 1992 to 1999. He entered politics from a career in advertising, winning the state seat of Burwood for the Liberal Party in 1976.

1 portrait in the collection

hey, Betty (Portrait of Betty Churcher), 1990

Davida Allen

Portrait, oil on plywood

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

Alan Marshall AM OBE

Alan Marshall AM OBE (1902-1984), writer, began life in Victoria’s Western District.

4 portraits in the collection

Philip Hunter, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Percy Leason

Percy Leason, artist, illustrator and cartoonist, grew up in Victoria's Wimmera region and trained in the rudiments of art in Nhill.

1 portrait in the collection

John Marsden

John Marsden (b. 1950), children's writer and social commentator, grew up in country Victoria and Tasmania and then attended the Kings School in Parramatta.

1 portrait in the collection

Graham Thorley

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2009

Graham Thorley (1921–1990) entered the Archibald Prize 23 times between 1940 and 1976, and in 1980 was one of the first Australian artists to visit Antarctica, where he painted a series of landscapes.

2 portraits in the collection

King Barak, last of the Yarra Tribe, 1899

Barak, respected elder

Dr Christopher Chapman looks at the life of Wurundjeri elder William Barak through the portrait painted by Victor de Pury in 1899.

Self portrait, 1971

Thomas de Kessler

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diana de Kessler 2009

Del Kathryn Barton

Del Kathryn Barton (b.1972) lives and works in Sydney. She is one of Australia's most celebrated contemporary artists, famous for her figurative paintings that feature fantastical characters posed against ornate—and sometimes psychedelic—backgrounds.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of the artist as a young man

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the early life and career of John Brack.

Lady Barkly, 1863

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite on card

Purchased 2014

Arthur Horner

Arthur Horner was born in Malvern, Victoria, and attended Sydney High School and the National Art School.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Charles Moses

Sir Charles Moses (1900-1988), legendary General Manager of the ABC from 1935 to 1965, was born 21 January 1900 in Lancaster, UK and migrated to Australia in 1922, after four years in the army.

1 portrait in the collection

A & G Taylor

Portraits from The Movement 1978-2003

Photographers Andrew Taylor and George Taylor opened their first studio in Cannon Street in east London in 1866.

1 portrait in the collection

Proof

Previous exhibition, 2003

Portraits from The Movement is the first comprehensive survey of photographs from the Juno Gemes archive, which has supported the Aboriginal struggle for justice in Australia from 1978 to the present day.

James Cassius Williamson

James Cassius Williamson (1845-1913), actor and theatrical entrepreneur, worked and performed in theatres in his native USA before coming to Victoria under contract to George Selth Coppin in 1874.

1 portrait in the collection

H B. Hall

Henry Bryan Hall grew up in England and began his trade as an apprentice to the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer.

1 portrait in the collection

Werner Baer MBE

Werner Baer MBE (1914-1992) grew up in Berlin, where he studied piano with Artur Schnabel and worked at the Berlin Stadtsoper.

1 portrait in the collection

David Beckham

Lorenzo Agius

W. B. Gould

Liverpool-born William Buelow Gould (1803-1853) had worked as a draftsman for the London printmaker, Rudolph Ackermann, and as a painter for a Staffordshire pottery before being transported to Van Diemen’s Land for theft in 1827.

1 portrait in the collection

Margaret Robertson, c. 1863

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

Jacqueline Mitelman

Jacqueline Mitelman (b. 1952), photographer, was born in Scotland and moved to Australia with her family at the age of five.

23 portraits in the collection

Hon. William McLellan

Portrait, pastel on paper

William McLellan (1831–1906), miner and parliamentarian, served on the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1859 to 1877, and again between 1883 and 1897.

1 portrait in the collection

Geoffrey Parsons, 1972

Michael Shannon

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Les Rowe 1998
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Tuisko Turso Seppelt

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

1 portrait in the collection

Sidney Nolan, 1964

Axel Poignant

Previous exhibition, 2009

Purchased 2003

Wendy drunk 11pm, 1983 by Brett Whiteley

Idle Hours

Idle hours is an exhibition of luxurious beauty. Paintings, prints and drawings represent subjects in quiet moods and situations arranged according to the time of day they depict - reading, drawing, snoozing, bathing, sewing, gardening, sitting, looking, making love and spending tranquil time with companions. Works in the exhibition range from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.

Jessie Whyte

Jessie Whyte (née Walker, 1779–1864). Born in Berwickshire, Scotland, Jessie married George Whyte (d.

1 portrait in the collection

Lawrence Cox AO

Laurence Cox AO (b. 1938), a director of the Australian Stock Exchange from its inception in 1987 and its chairman from 1989 to 1994, was an executive director of Macquarie Group Limited from 1996 to 2009; chairman of the Transurban Group from 1996 to 2007 and chairman of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute from 1994 to 2009.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Professors Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis, 2017

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite photograph

Commissioned with funds provided by Jim and Barbara Higgins, Sir Roderick Carnegie AC, Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer, Louise and Martyn Myer Foundation, Peter and Ruth McMullin, Diana Carlton, Professor Derek Denton AC, Harold Mitchell AC, Peter Jopling AM KC, Andrew and Liz Mackenzie, Patricia Patten, Tamie Fraser AO, Bruce Parncutt and Robin Campbell, Lauraine Diggins, Steven Skala AO and Lousje Skala 2017

Mrs Grey, c. 1845

Theresa Walker

Portrait, cast wax

Purchased 1999

Self portrait, 1870

William H. Bardwell

Purchased 2015

Betsy (Bessie) Lee

Betsy (Bessie) Lee Cowie (1860–1950), 'Australia's Temperance Queen', spent the early part of her life in Daylesford, Victoria, one of the five children of Henry Vickery, a butcher and miner, and his wife Emma.

1 portrait in the collection

Mia Boe

Artists and Collectives

Mia Boe is a Narrm/Melbourne-based artist known for her haunting and evocative painting practice, informed by her Butchulla and Burmese ancestry.

Bob Jenyns

Robert ‘Bob’ Jenyns (1944-2015) grew up in Victoria and gained his diploma in art from the Caulfield Institute of Technology in 1964.

1 portrait in the collection

Rachel Griffiths AM

Rachel Griffiths (b. 1968) studied education at Victoria College before working with the community theatre group Woolly Jumpers, Inc.

1 portrait in the collection

Xavier Herbert

Xavier Herbert (1901 –1984), author, was born Alfred Jackson to a single mother in Geraldton, WA.

2 portraits in the collection

Matthÿs Gerber

Matthÿs Gerber (b. 1956), artist and academic, moved to Sydney from the Netherlands at the age of sixteen in 1971.

4 portraits in the collection

Ursula Hoff, 1994

Francis Reiss

Purchased 2004

Alex Miller, 1992

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir George Coles KT CBE

Sir George Coles CBE (1885–1977) was the founder of the retail concern GJ Coles and Coy.

1 portrait in the collection

Elizabeth Read

Elizabeth Read (née Archer c. 1820–1884) had already spent time in gaol for offences including drunkenness and being ‘lewd and disorderly’ when, in 1840, she was found guilty of stealing and sentenced to transportation ‘beyond the sea’.

1 portrait in the collection

Frances Perry, c. 1863

Purchased 2012

George Selth Coppin

George Coppin (1819-1906), comedian, entrepreneur and politician, cut his teeth in the world of the English itinerant theatre.

2 portraits in the collection

King Edward Terrace

Behind the street name

Visiting the gallery

King Edward Terrace was named in honour of King Edward VII (1841-1910)

Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace, c. 2000

Penny Tweedie

Sir Leslie Ward, Vanity Fair Magazine

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

The Lord Chamberlain (Earl of Hopetoun John Adrian Louis Hope)

The Lord Chamberlain (Earl of Hopetoun John Adrian Louis Hope), 1900

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

John Schaeffer AO

John Schaeffer AO (1940–2020), businessman, connoisseur and philanthropist, was a founding benefactor of the National Portrait Gallery.

1 portrait in the collection

Lady Anne Maria Barkly

Portrait, conté crayon and charcoal on paper

Anne Maria Barkly (1838-1932) was the second wife of Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria from December 1856 to September 1863.

1 portrait in the collection

Ina Gregory, c. 1895

E. Phillips Fox

Purchased 2012

Kitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapinni at Milikapiti (Snake Bay)

Kitty Kantilla (Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu)

Kitty Kantilla (Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu) (c. 1928–2003) was the most acclaimed Tiwi artist of her generation.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait (Full Length in front of Easel)

Hugh Ramsay

Hugh Ramsay (1877-1906), painter, was born in Scotland but arrived in Australia as a baby.

3 portraits in the collection

D. H. Souter

David Henry Souter (1862-1935) was a cartoonist, painter and art editor.

2 portraits in the collection

Elizabeth Read (née Archer), c. 1853

Portrait, watercolour on paper

Purchased 2019

Phillip Gudthaykudthay

Philip Gudthaykudthay (b. 1935) Liyagalawumirr (Yolgnu) bark painter, worked as a young man as a stockman, fencer and crocodile hunter around Milingimbi and Ramingining.

1 portrait in the collection

George Selth Coppin, c. 1863

an unknown artist after Maximilian Kreitmayer

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Ned Kelly death mask, date unknown

Portrait, cast plaster

Collection: National Portrait Gallery Study Collection, Canberra
Gift of John Molony 2018

Jeff Kennett, 1999

Hugh Stewart

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Richard Divall OBE in the church mantle of the Order of Malta

Richard Divall OBE in the church mantle of the Order of Malta, 1999

Eric Smith

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Richard Divall AO OBE 2017

Robert Henderson Croll

Robert Henderson Croll (1869-1947), author, worked as a clerk in the Victorian public service for over 40 years, but is better remembered for his books and journalism.

2 portraits in the collection

Jacqui Stockdale

Jacqui Stockdale (b. 1968) works across theatrical portrait photography, painting, drawing and collage to explore ideas surrounding cultural identity, national history, theatricality, masquerade and folkloric traditions.

1 portrait in the collection

Theresa Walker

Theresa Walker is acknowledged as Australia’s first female sculptor.

3 portraits in the collection

Sir Robert Menzies KT AK CH LLM QC

Rt Hon. Sir Robert Gordon Menzies KT AK CH PC QC (1894-1978) was Prime Minister of Australia for a record total of 19 years: from 1939 to 1941 and 1949 to 1966.

9 portraits in the collection

Mark Strizic

A Journey in Photography

This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.

Rt. Hon. John McEwen CH GCMG PC

Sir John (‘Black Jack’) McEwen CH GCMG PC (1900-1980) was leader of the Australian Country Party and deputy prime minister from 1958 to 1971.

2 portraits in the collection

Colonel Edward (Weary) Dunlop AC CMG OBE

Sir Edward (‘Weary’) Dunlop AC CMG OBE (1907–1993) was a surgeon, who as a prisoner-of-war on the infamous Burma Railway used his medical skills to save the lives of a great number of allied POWs.

2 portraits in the collection

A Goldfields Member "The Dove of Ararat" [The Hon. William McLellan M.L.A], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Robert O'Hara Burke

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861), explorer, came to Australia in 1853 and joined the Victorian police force.

4 portraits in the collection

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

W & D Downey

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

Sir Cecil Colville, c. 1965

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Due 2010

Johannes Heyer

Johannes Heyer was born at Germantown (Grovedale) near Geelong in Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

John Frith

John Frith, cartoonist, was born and schooled in England before coming to Sydney in 1929.

4 portraits in the collection

Anthea da Silva

Dalton's Royal Photographic Gallery

Based in Griffith, New South Wales, artist Anthea da Silva's abiding interest in life drawing and portraiture is an underpinning theme throughout her practice.

1 portrait in the collection

Lucy Escott, c. 1861

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite, hand coloured on card

Purchased 2009

Roderick Shaw

Roderick Shaw (1915-1992) is perhaps best known for his worker paintings of the social realist school, such as Cable Layers (in the Art Gallery of NSW).

2 portraits in the collection

John Shirlow, c. 1937

Julian Smith

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

David Davies

David Davies began studying art at the School of Mines and Industries in his birthplace, Ballarat.

1 portrait in the collection

Gustavus Brooke, c. 1865

Burman and Son

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Wainburranga

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

Wainburranga (Paddy Fordham) (c. 1932-2006), Rembarrnga painter, sculptor, printmaker and dancer, lived in the bush before moving to Maranboy, where he first saw white people.

1 portrait in the collection

Pre-Raphaelite Profile

In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.

Sir George Hayter

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

1 portrait in the collection

Peter Schipperheyn

Portrait, watercolour and gouache on paper

Peter Schipperheyn (b. 1955), Melbourne-based sculptor, is well known for his contemporary marble and bronze sculptures of the human form.

1 portrait in the collection

Joseph Brown, 1980

Brian Dunlop

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Francis Reiss

Francis Reiss (1917-2017), portrait photographer and photojournalist, was born in Hamburg and educated in Germany, England and the USA before joining London's Picture Post as a staff photographer.

11 portraits in the collection

Werner Baer, 1947

Max Dupain OBE

Gift of Richard King 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Self portrait with scarf, c. 1930s

Rupert Bunny

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

Barbara Darling

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on card

Barbara Darling (1948-2015) was the first woman appointed a bishop in Victoria and the second woman to be made a bishop in Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Ada Crossley, c. 1900

Rotary Photo Company Ltd

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Roger Neill 2009

Sir Charles Moses, 1968

Mark Strizic

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003

Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG

Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG (b. 1978), former Australian Army soldier, is the recipient of the Medal for Gallantry in 2006, the Victoria Cross in 2011 and the Commendation for Distinguished Service in 2013.In 2017, Roberts-Smith’s military service came under scrutiny as a result of an inquiry – commonly known as the Brereton Report – into questions of unlawful conduct on the part of Australian military personnel in Afghanistan.

1 portrait in the collection

Gai Waterhouse AO

Gai Waterhouse AO, thoroughbred racehorse trainer, is the daughter of legendary trainer Tommy Smith.

1 portrait in the collection

Inge King, 1968

Mark Strizic

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003

Hon. James G. Francis

James Goodall Francis (1819–1884), a London-born merchant and politician, arrived in Hobart as a steerage passenger in February 1835.

1 portrait in the collection

Aileen Dent

Aileen Dent (1890–1979), painter, is the most-exhibited woman artist in the Archibald Prize, with 63 works hung between 1921 and 1962.

1 portrait in the collection

George Moore

George Moore (1923-2008), champion jockey, was born in Mackay, Qld and was apprenticed in Brisbane in 1938.

1 portrait in the collection

The Australian Tom Thumb (John David Armstrong)

The Australian Tom Thumb (John David Armstrong), c. 1880

J D. Cooper

Purchased 2014

Tjayanka Woods

Tjayanka Woods (d. 2014) was a senior Pitjantjatjara artist and cultural custodian.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Bernard Heinze AC KT

Portrait, pastel and charcoal on paper

Sir Bernard Heinze AC KT (1894-1982) was a conductor who brought classical music to the general public and promoted the works of Australian composers.

1 portrait in the collection

Disillusion self portrait, 1983

Mary MacQueen

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Robin MacQueen 2007

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

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

Dan Kelly

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

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

Archie Roach, 2008

Peter Hudson

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

Frances Perry

Frances Perry (1815-1892) met Charles Perry through her brother, a student at Cambridge, and after they married, the couple lived at St Paul’s Cambridge, where he was vicar, for six years.

1 portrait in the collection

Nick Mourtzakis

Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945

Nick Mourtzakis (b. 1951) is Melbourne-based artist and teacher. Mourtzajkis migrated to Melbourne with his Greek family in the early 1950s and trained at the Preston Institute of Technology and Mercer House Teachers' College in the early 1970s.

3 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.

Mysterious eyes

Previous exhibition, 2016

Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.

Sergeant Michael Kennedy

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 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

Michael Scanlan

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

Marion Borgelt

Marion Borgelt (b. 1954) grew up on a farm in the Wimmera district in western Victoria and attained her Diploma in Fine Art, majoring in painting, from the South Australian School of Art in 1976.

1 portrait in the collection

Janet Dawson

When soulmates Janet Dawson and Michael Boddy moved from Sydney to a property, Boddy was clear about why: ‘Our marriage is one long conversation - we moved to the bush so we could talk to each other without so many interruptions.’

Linda Jackson

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Linda Mary Jackson (b. 1950) is a fashion designer and artist. Having studied fashion design at Emily McPherson College and photography at Prahran Technical College, she travelled to New Guinea, through Asia and Europe, and worked for Parisian couture house Mia-Vicky.

1 portrait in the collection

Neilma Gantner, c. 1990

William Kelly OAM

Purchased 2022

Robert Henderson Croll, 1927

Frederick George Reynolds

Portrait, oil on canvas on board

Gift of Grietje Croll in memory of her late husband Robert Devereaux Croll and with the endorsement of his daughter Helen Croll 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Charles Kean

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

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Cecil Colville

Sir Cecil Colville (1891-1984), medical practitioner, was the first president of the Australian Medical Association.

1 portrait in the collection

Phillip Law AC AO CBE

Phillip Law AC AO CBE (1912–2010), scientist and Antarctic explorer, developed an interest in the frozen continent as a boy.

1 portrait in the collection

Adam Cullen

Adam Cullen (1965-2012), painter, studied art in Sydney from 1986 to 1999, when he obtained his master’s degree in fine arts from the University of New South Wales.

8 portraits in the collection

Andrew Southall, 1995

Portrait, drypoint on wove paper

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

Jenny Watson

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Jenny Watson (b. 1951), painter and lecturer, studied painting at the NGV school and completed her Dip.

2 portraits in the collection

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.

Brian Fitzpatrick

Brian Fitzpatrick (1905-1965) was educated at state schools in regional Victoria and Melbourne before gaining his BA from Melbourne University in 1925.

1 portrait in the collection

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

Ernie Dingo

Ernie Dingo AM (b. 1956), television presenter and actor, is a Yamatji man.

1 portrait in the collection

John Perceval, 1985

Portrait, black conte on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

John Perceval, 1985

Portrait, black conte on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

George Bonnor

Charles Troedel after Robert Wendel

George Bonnor (1855–1912), cricketer, made his debut for Australia in the first official Test match between Australia and England, held at The Oval in September 1880.

1 portrait in the collection

Great Suffragette demonstration in London

The courage of their convictions

Nearest & Dearest

Trust the women

Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, c. 1890

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Wainburranga (Paddy Fordham), 1986

Martin van der Wal

Purchased 2005

Sir Robert Menzies, 1985

Andor Meszaros

Portrait, cast bronze medallion on wood plaque

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Ray Marginson AM 2001

Ben Roberts-Smith, 2017

Commissioned in 2018 with funds raised through the 2020 project

Justin Tjungurrayi, 2007

Portrait, inkjet print on cotton rag paper

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2020. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Neil Murray, Bolac, VIC, 2004

John Elliott

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

A Chief Secretary "Blunt, but Honest" [The Hon. James Goodall Francis], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Lewis Miller

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite photograph

Lewis Miller (b. 1959), artist, won the Archibald Prize in 1998 with one of his many portraits of fellow artist Allan Mitelman, and has been a finalist seventeen times.

4 portraits in the collection

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist, c. 1870

James E. Bray

Purchased 2017

Henry Hopkins

Henry Hopkins (1787–1870), merchant and philanthropist, opened his first shop on Elizabeth Street in Hobart soon after arriving in the colony in September 1822.

1 portrait in the collection

Queenie McKenzie Nakara

Francis Reiss and June Orford

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

1 portrait in the collection

The Rt Rev Barbara Darling, 2008

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Louise Forthun

Louise Forthun (b. 1959), artist, works primarily in painting and printmaking and has an aesthetic and conceptual focus on the architectural landscape of Australia's urban environments.

1 portrait in the collection

Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd

Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd (1919-1971), was born and educated in Melbourne, and a member of the famous Australian family of artists and writers.

1 portrait in the collection

Julia Matthews

Previous exhibition, 2010

Julia Matthews (1842-1876), actress and singer, came to Australia as a girl with her parents, and made her debut at Sydney's Royal Victoria Theatre in 1854, aged twelve.

1 portrait in the collection

National Youth Self Portrait Prize

NYSPP 2010

An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.

William Westall, 1854

William Daniell after George Dance

Portrait, etching on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Charles Summers, late 1860s

Batchelder & Company Photo

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

Rev. Edward Puckle

Portrait, watercolour and bodycolour on cardboard

The Reverend Edward Puckle (c. 1800-1898), Anglican clergyman, took holy orders in Exeter and officiated in Cornwall before sailing on the Randolph to Canterbury, NZ in 1850.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, 1909

Bess Norriss Tait

Purchased with funds provided by Barbara and Jim Higgins 2010

Jarinyanu David Downs, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Purchased 2005

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2002

The story behind the commissioning of the tapesty portrait of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

Queen Elizabeth II

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

4 portraits in the collection

Atong Atem

Artists and Collectives

Atong Atem is an Ethiopian-born, South Sudanese artist and writer living in Narrm/Melbourne. Her work explores migrant narratives and postcolonial practices in the African diaspora.

Study for "Barry Humphries in the character of Mrs Everage", 1969

John Brack

Gift of Timothy Fairfax AC 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Ted Dyson, Bill Dyson (with pipe) and Percy

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

Portrait, inkjet print on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Paul Hester, 1987 (printed 2021)

Alan Mitchell

Gift of the artist 2021

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval

John Perceval AO

John Perceval AO (1923-2000) was a painter and ceramic artist. Early on, along with Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker, he was part of a loose group of largely self-taught Australian artists, now known as the Angry Penguins, who rebelled against the conservatism of the art establishment.

10 portraits in the collection

Peter Rushforth, 1971 (printed 2009)

Douglas Thompson

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Australian Cricket (George John Bonnor), 1884

Purchased 2013

William Henry Harvey

William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), botanist, formed a boyhood passion for natural history which was encouraged at Ballitore School, County Kildare.

1 portrait in the collection

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.

Hattie Shepparde, 1872

Bardwell's Royal Studio

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

Self portrait (Full Length in front of Easel), 1901-1902

Hugh Ramsay

Gift of the Estate of John Oswald Wicking 2003

Ivy Shore, 1961

Graeme Inson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Harvey and Russell Shore 2014

Mick Fanning at Snapper Rocks, 2010

Andrew Maccoll

Purchased 2011

John Longstaff

Sir John Longstaff, born in Clunes, Victoria, studied at the NGV school from 1883 to 1887 and thenceforth at Corman's in Paris.

1 portrait in the collection

George Langley, 1918

James McBey

Portrait, conte on paper

Gift of Pat Lesslie (née Langley), in memory of George Langley and Rob Lesslie 2015

Governor Sir Robert Duff with Lady Duff, Lord Hopetoun and Vice-Regal Party

Governor Sir Robert Duff with Lady Duff, Lord Hopetoun and Vice-Regal Party, 1893

Kerry & Co

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Dr Phillip Law, 1974

Dallas Hawes

Gift of Dr Phillip Law 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Simon McKeon AO

Simon McKeon (b. 1955), corporate chair, investment banker and philanthropic entrepreneur, gained degrees in commerce and law in Melbourne before beginning a very successful career in banking and finance.

1 portrait in the collection

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne

William Lamb

Magazine article by Matthew Jones, 2016

William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848), statesman, was Prime Minister of Britain in 1834 and from 1835 to 1841.

2 portraits in the collection

Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1887 by William Strutt

Strutt your stuff

Matthew Jones on the upshot of a St Kilda Road outrage.

William Kelly OAM

William Kelly OAM (b. 1943) was born in Buffalo, New York and was a steelworker before becoming a student at the Philadelphia College of Art.

2 portraits in the collection

The Rt. Hon Sir Edmund Barton GCMG PC KC

Sir Edmund Barton GCMG PC KC (1849-1920), Australia’s first prime minister, was the youngest of nine children of a well-educated woman.

6 portraits in the collection

Willow Legge

Willow Legge (b. 1934) is a British artist who studied sculpture at Chelsea School of Art from 1951 to 1956 under Willi Soukop and Bernard Meadows.

1 portrait in the collection

Richard Daintree

Failing as a prospector, Richard Daintree (1832-1878) started work as an assistant geologist in 1854, and returned to London to study assaying and metallurgy; while abroad, he became interested in photography.

2 portraits in the collection

Rosie Batty AO

Rosie Batty AO (b. 1962), campaigner against family violence, became well known to the Australian public in early 2014, when her eleven-year-old son Luke was murdered by his father as she stood waiting to take him home from cricket practice.

1 portrait in the collection

First High Court of Australia, c. 1903

Portrait, albumen silver photograph

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Raimond Gaita

Raimond Gaita (b. 1946) arrived in Australia in 1950 with his Romanian father and German mother, and was brought up largely by his father near Barninghup, Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

George Trott (George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott, member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team)

George Henry Stevens Trott

Dalton's Royal Photographic Gallery

George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott (1866–1917) was the captain of the Australian cricket team which toured England and then to the USA and New Zealand from June to November 1896.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Squires, c. 1861

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite, hand coloured on card

Purchased 2009

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

Portrait, cast bronze medallion on wood plaque

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

Sir Bernard Heinze AC, 1985

Michael Meszaros

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Ray Marginson AM 2001

Peter Carey in Kelly country, 2000

Bruce Armstrong

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint on board

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001

Justin O'Brien

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

Justin O'Brien (1917-1996) was one of the major Australian artists of his generation.

3 portraits in the collection

Sir John McEwen, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

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

Sir John McEwen, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

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

Portrait of Henry Hopkins, c. 1845

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright

Portrait, watercolour on paper

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2013

Marilyn Rowe, 1981

Graham Thorley

Portrait photography by John Elliott

Gift of the family of Graham Thorley in his memory and in tribute to Marilyn Rowe 2010

Thousand Mile Stare

Thousand mile stare provides a unique portrait of people of rural Australia

Sir Henry Wylie Norman

Sir Henry Wylie Norman (1826–1904), governor and army officer, was born in London, the son of a merchant who conducted his business chiefly in India and the Caribbean.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Mezei

Andrew Mezei (b. 1963), artist, was born to Hungarian refugee parents in Melbourne and grew up in their leather-goods workshop, observing their adherence to a tradition of fine European craftsmanship.

1 portrait in the collection

Nick Cave AO

Nick Cave AO (b. 1957), singer, songwriter and author, was born in Warracknabeal, Victoria, and educated at Caulfield Grammar School, where he formed his first band, The Boys Next Door.

7 portraits in the collection

Alex Jelinek

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

Alex Jelinek (1925–2007), architect and designer, graduated from the technical building school of Hradec Králové, near Prague, during World War II.

1 portrait in the collection

John Perceval, 1999

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001

W B McInnes

William Beckwith (Bill) McInnes (1889–1939), artist, was only fourteen when he began studying drawing under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery School in Melbourne, before moving to painting.

5 portraits in the collection

Neilma B. Gantner

Neilma Baillieu Gantner (1922–2015), writer and philanthropist, was the second child of Melbourne retailer Sidney Myer and his wife Merlyn (née Baillieu).

1 portrait in the collection

Hon. Edward Cohen

Portrait, cast bronze on granite base

Edward Aaron Cohen (1822–1877), merchant, politician and community leader, came to Australia with his mother and nine siblings in 1833, his father, Henry, having been transported to New South Wales that year.

1 portrait in the collection

Harold Holt, 1969

Victor Greenhalgh

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

Max Walker

Max Walker AM (1948–2016) was one of a small group of sportsmen to have played both senior VFL/AFL football and Test cricket.

1 portrait in the collection

Jean Isherwood OAM

Jean Isherwood OAM (1911–2006), artist, was born in Marrickville and won a scholarship to the National Art School at East Sydney Technical College at the age of fourteen.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Wheeler

Pamela Joyce, Australian Tapestry Workshop

Charles Wheeler OBE (1881–1977), artist, won the Archibald Prize in 1933 for a portrait of the popular Melbourne-based writer Ambrose Pratt.

8 portraits in the collection

The Honourable Margaret Lusink AM, 2019

Portrait, wool and cotton tapestry

Gift of The Honourable Margaret Lusink AM 2021

Jim Paterson

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

Yvonne Audette, Vaucluse, Sydney, 1968 (printed 2000)

Sir Charles Lloyd Jones

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (1878-1958), merchant and arts patron, grew up in Sydney, where he studied at Julian Ashton's art school in 1895.

1 portrait in the collection

Creature from the Black Platoon starring Gary Foley 2011, 2011

TextaQueen

Purchased 2011

Ginger Riley at the Limmen River, Northern Territory

Ginger Riley at the Limmen River, Northern Territory, 1992 (printed 2013)

Helga Leunig

Gift of Helga Leunig 2013

Stuart Spence

Stuart Spence (b. 1960) born in Geelong, Victoria, established his career in Sydney during the 1980s and 1990s, as a magazine photographer specialising in celebrity portraiture.

2 portraits in the collection

William Robertson, 1866

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 St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew

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

Hills & Saunders

From lanolin to Balenciaga

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

Helena Rubinstein in a red brocade Balenciaga gown

Crème Valaze

Portrait, graphite on paper

Helena Rubinstein (1872‒1965) was the first self-made millionairess of modern times, and created the first publicly-listed global cosmetics corporation.

Harold Holt, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

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

Phillip Gudthaykudthay, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Purchased 2005

Cate Blanchett and Ernie Dingo, 1994

Juno Gemes

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2004

Mirror With A Memory

Photographic Portraiture in Australia

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

The Hon. Susan Crennan AC KC

The Hon. Susan Crennan AC KC (b. 1945) is a leading barrister and former High Court judge.

1 portrait in the collection

Eric Westbrook

Eric Westbrook was the Director of the National Gallery of Victoria from 1956 to 1973.

1 portrait in the collection

Joseph Brown AO OBE

Charles Turner after Sir George Hayter

Joseph Brown AO OBE (1918–2009), art collector, art dealer and philanthropist, arrived in Australia with his father and siblings from Poland in 1933; his mother had passed away shortly before their departure.

2 portraits in the collection

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne, 1839

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

John Monash, 1919

James Quinn

Gift of John Colin Monash Bennett 2007. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Neil Finn and Paul Hester, 1987 (printed 2021)

Alan Mitchell

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Gift of the artist 2021

Stanley Argyle, 1924

Tom Glover

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, River Kwai, Thailand

Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, River Kwai, Thailand, c. 1987 (printed 2003)

Robert McFarlane

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Maurice Ashkanasy CMG QC, 1963

Karl Duldig

Portrait, cast bronze

Gift of Dr Vivianne de Vahl Davis and Professor Neal Ashkanasy 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Dave Tacon

Dave Tacon (b. 1976) is a Shanghai-based photographer, director, producer and writer who specialises in reportage, features and portraiture.

18 portraits in the collection

Self portrait, 1900

Agnes Goodsir

Portrait, photo screenprint with ballpoint pen framing lines on paper

Gift of Rosemary Neilson 2021

Self portrait, c. 1982

Bea Maddock AM

Gift of David Archer 2016

Bessie Lee, c. 1890

Yeoman & Co, Melbourne

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on cabinet card

Purchased 2017

Sir Roy Grounds

Sir Roy Grounds (1905-1981) was one of Australia's leading modernist architects.

2 portraits in the collection

Janet Dawson, Paddington, Sydney, 1966 (printed 2000)

Petrina Hicks

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

Petrina Hicks (b. 1972) is a photographer whose work interrogates female identity and the representation of women throughout history.

3 portraits in the collection

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

Portrait, engraving on paper

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

Henry Wade, c. 1841

Portrait, oil on paperboard

Gift of the Wade and Hannah families 2013

Paul Taylor

Paul Taylor (1957-1992), critic and curator, graduated from Monash Univeristy in 1979.

1 portrait in the collection

Makinti Napanangka

Makinti Napanangka (c. 1930-2011), painter, was one of the leading artists of the Western Desert.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur Boyd - Bundanon Studio II, 1993

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

Mark Strizic

Mark Strizic (1928-2012) was born in Berlin and migrated to Australia via Croatia in 1950.

12 portraits in the collection

David Rosetzky

David Rosetzky (b. 1970) is a Melbourne-based contemporary artist working across photography, video and installation.

2 portraits in the collection

Jarinyanu David Downs

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Jarinyanu David Downs (c. 1925–1995), Wangkajunga/Walmajarri painter, printmaker and preacher, lived a traditional life in the Great Sandy Desert of West Australia until he was a young man.

2 portraits in the collection

Julian Rossi Ashton, 1933

Eric Wilson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Philip Bacon AM 2012

Robert Jacks, 1961-1962

Charina Oeser

Gift of the artist 2021

Lionel Rose, World Champion Bantam Weight Boxer before departing to the USA to defend his title

Lionel E. Rose MBE

Portrait, gouache on paper

Lionel Rose MBE (1948–2011), boxer, was the first Aboriginal Australian to win a world sporting title.

1 portrait in the collection

Maisie, 1938-1939

Peter Purves Smith

Bequest of Lady Maisie Drysdale 2001

Collection: Icons

Volume Two

Previous exhibition, 2018

The second instalment of a display featuring bold contemporary portraits drawn from the collection. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

Portrait of Brian Dunlop, c. 1972

Bryan Westwood

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Patrick Ryan

Previous exhibition, 2006

Patrick Ryan (d. 1990) and Tim Burstall set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.

1 portrait in the collection

Rennie Ellis

Aussies All

Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.

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

Brenda L Croft

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

Artist, curator, lecturer and writer, Brenda L. Croft (born 1964) is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples from the Victoria River region in the Northern Territory, and also has Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese/Scottish heritage.

5 portraits in the collection

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

Patrick McCaughey, 1985

Fred Cress

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

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

Sir James McCulloch KCMG

Sir James McCulloch KCMG (1819–1893) served four separate terms as premier of Victoria between 1863 and 1877.

1 portrait in the collection

Kenneth Rowell AM

Kenneth Rowell AM (1920–1999), artist and theatre designer, grew up in Melbourne and became intent on a career in the theatre at a young age.

2 portraits in the collection

Dr. Arthur Martin a'Beckett, c. 1840

Portrait, pastel on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Ross Watson

Ross Watson specialises in interpolating representations of lithe semi-naked men into copies of paintings by masters such as Vermeer, Ter Borsch, David and Bronzino.

2 portraits in the collection

A Commissioner of Customs "Faithful to Francis" [The Hon. Edward Cohen M.L.A.], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Arthur Triggs

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Arthur Triggs (1868-1936), pastoralist and collector, is sometimes referred to as the 'Kidman of the wool industry'.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Albert Victor Jennings, 1984

Kate Gollings

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

George Trott (George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott, 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

Peter Brew-Bevan Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2005

In this exhibition Sydney based photographer Peter Brew-Bevan brings together an intimate collection of works that highlight his passion for the genre of portraiture over the last 10 years

Mick Dodson, 2010

Ricky Maynard

Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2010

William Robertson junior, c. 1857

Conway Hart

phra ajahn ekaggata fka terry milligan

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Chrissy Grishin, c. 1996 (printed 2012)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Claudia Hyles 2012

Robert W. Pohlman

Robert Williams Pohlman (1811–1877), judge, arrived in Melbourne in 1840 and with his brother acquired a sheep station, Darlington (later Glenhope), near Kyneton.

1 portrait in the collection

Estate of Alan Boxer

Alan Boxer, public servant, academic and art collector, was schooled in Melbourne and gained his economic qualifications in Melbourne and Oxford.

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.

Robert Brown

Previous exhibition, 2005

Robert Brown (1773–1858) is considered ‘the father of Australian botany’.

2 portraits in the collection

Glossy 2

Faces, Magazines, Now

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

Brett Canét-Gibson

Brett Canét-Gibson (b. 1965) has a 25-year career as an image maker, Creative Director, writer and communicator in portrait, still life and landscape commercial and editorial photography, graphic design and visual arts.

3 portraits in the collection

Dr. Arthur Martin a'Beckett, 1845

Charles Abraham

Portrait, cast plaster

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Raimond Gaita, 2012

Dave Tacon

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Lee Kernaghan OAM

Lee Kernaghan (b.1964) is a country music singer and songwriter. Born in Victoria, son of travelling country music artist and impresario Ray Kernaghan, Lee Kernaghan grew up in the Riverina area of New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Marea Gazzard, 1966

Judy Cassab AO CBE

Portrait, pen and ink, pencil on paper laid on cardboard

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

Self portrait, n.d.

Ada May Plante

Gift of Dr Penny Olsen, Peter Woollard and Artemis Georgiades 2015

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

an unknown artist, The Australasian Sketcher

Portrait, wood engraving on paper

Purchased 2003

Open Air

Portraits in the Landscape

Previous exhibition, 2008

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

Rosie Batty, 2017

Nikki Toole

Commissioned with funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2017

Melodrama..., c. 1900

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Edward Henty, late 19th century

Magazine article by Julia Gillard AC, 2015

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tim Clark 2018

Joan Alone

Julia Gillard pays poignant tribute to her friend and mentor, the late Joan Kirner, Victoria’s first and only female premier.

Rayner Hoff

Self Portraits in Australia

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

2 portraits in the collection

To Look Within

Previous exhibition, 2005

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

Clifton Pugh

Australians

This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.

Mary Chomley, 1909

Violet Teague

Purchased with the assistance of funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AC 2021

Fiona McMonagle

Fiona McMonagle, an Irish-born, Melbourne-based artist, grew up in an outer suburb of Melbourne and completed a qualification in visual arts at RMIT before progressing to the Victorian College of the Arts.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of the Seventh Earl of Hopetoun, the Rt Hon. John Hope

Rt Hon John Adrian Louis Hope KT GCMG GCVO PC

Rt Hon John Adrian Louis Hope KT GCMG GCVO PC, 7th Earl of Hopetoun (1860–1908) was the first governor general of Australia.

3 portraits in the collection

Hoda Afshar

Hoda Afshar was born Tehran, Iran in 1983. She completed a BFA (Photography) in Tehran, and PhD in Creative Arts at Curtin University.

1 portrait in the collection

Margaret Dodd, 2002

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

Robert Menzies, Sydney, 1963 (printed 2000)

Dame Jean MacNamara DBE

Dame Jean Macnamara DBE (1899–1968), medical doctor and scientist, was involved in crucial research into poliomyelitis during the 1920s and 1930s.

1 portrait in the collection

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

Polly Borland

Purchased 2021

Portrait 62

Autumn 2019

Magazine

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019, the iconoclastic Japanese figures Yukio Mishima and Tamotsu Yato, Angélica Dass’ Humanæ project and more.

Rennie Ellis

Rennie Ellis (1940–2003), photographer and writer, began taking photographs while travelling around the world in the 1960s.

21 portraits in the collection

Sir Clive McPherson

Portrait, enamel on canvas

Sir Clive McPherson (1884-1958), pastoralist and businessman, was the son of a bank manager, and his mother was a pianist who came from a pastoral family.

1 portrait in the collection

Dr Joseph Brown with Two Typists, 1996

Noel McKenna

Gift of the artist 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Russell Drysdale and Peter Sculthorpe, Tallow Beach, New South Wales

Russell Drysdale and Peter Sculthorpe, Tallow Beach, New South Wales, 1969 (printed 2000)

Michelle Simmons, 2018

by Selina Ou

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

George Tjungurrayi

Portrait, albumen paper photograph

George Tjungurrayi (b. c. 1943–1947) is a highly respected senior Pintupi artist.

2 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Susan Crennan, 2017

Lewis Miller

Portrait, oil on linen

Gift of the Hon. Susan Crennan AC KC 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Queen Rose of the Wathaurung People, c. 1876-1877

Fred Kruger

Purchased 2017

President Johnson and Prime Minister Holt at Canberra Airport

President Johnson and Prime Minister Holt at Canberra Airport, 1966 (printed 2000)

Max Walker, 1976 (printed 2010)

Bruce Postle

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010

Leigh Bowery in Fur Coat, c. 1983 (printed 2005)

David Gwinnutt

Australian Tapestry Workshop, Merrill Dumbrell, Christopher Pyett, Normana Wight

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Portrait of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, 2000

Portrait, warp: cotton No.12 seinetwine; weft: wool and cotton

Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2000

Death mask of George Melville courtesy of National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Old Melbourne Gaol Collection

A colourful story from Sideshow Alley

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

From infamous bushranger to oyster shop display, curator Jo Gilmour explores the life of George Melville.

Julian Burnside AO KC

Julian Burnside AO (b. 1949), barrister, grew up in Melbourne, attending Melbourne Grammar and studying economics and law at Monash in the late 1960s.

1 portrait in the collection

General Sir John Monash GCMG KCB

General Sir John Monash GCMG KCB (1865-1931) was one of Australia's great military leaders.

1 portrait in the collection

Joan Kirner

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

Joan Kirner AC (1938-2015) was the first female premier of Victoria. Daughter of a fitter and turner and a homemaker, she attended the selective University High School, graduating from the University of Melbourne to teach in state schools.

1 portrait in the collection

Sideshow Alley

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.

A Victorian Knight "Thrice Chief Secretary" [Sir James McCulloch K.C.M.G.], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Carol Jerrems, Paddington, 1976 (printed 2003)

Roger Scott

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Bryce Gyngell AO

Portrait, mixed media on canvas

Bruce Gyngell (1929–2000) presided over the first commercial television transmission in Australia, launching the medium here with the now famous phrase: 'Good evening, and welcome to television'.

1 portrait in the collection

Patrick Dodson, 2004

Zhou Xiaoping

Gift of the Lingiari Foundation 2015

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

Ada May Plante

Ada May Plante (1875–1950), artist, was born in New Zealand and came to Melbourne with her family in 1888.

1 portrait in the collection

William H. Bardwell

William H. Bardwell, photographer, worked at various premises in Ballarat from 1858 until 1895.

1 portrait in the collection

Gideon Obarzanek, 2012

Dave Tacon

Purchased 2012

Helena Rubinstein in a red brocade Balenciaga gown, 1957

Graham Sutherland

Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC, Tim Fairfax AC and the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2015

Rosalie Gascoigne, 1993

Portrait, conté crayon on paper

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

Self portrait, c. 1948

John Brack

Purchased with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2010

Yellow portrait (portrait of Alex Jelinek), 1955

Lina Bryans

Portrait, oil on plywood

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and James Bryans 2015. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

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.

Australia (Sir Edmund Barton), 1902

Sir Leslie Ward, Vanity Fair Magazine

London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

Sir Oswald Brierly, c. 1870

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Eleanor Constance Gude

Eleanor Constance 'Nornie' Gude (1915–2002) was born in Ballarat and was fifteen when she was accepted to study painting at the Ballarat Technical Art School.

1 portrait in the collection

Alan Goldberg AO QC

Alan Goldberg AO QC (1940-2016), Federal Court judge, was born into a pioneering Jewish Melbourne family and graduated from the University of Melbourne law school in the early 1960s.

1 portrait in the collection

The Huxleys

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Will Huxley grew up in the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, and Garrett Huxley was raised on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

3 portraits in the collection

Charles Joseph La Trobe, 1853

Thomas Woolner

Purchased 2006

Mick Fanning AO

Previous exhibition, 1999

Michael 'Mick' Fanning AO (b. 1981) was the world's number one surfer in 2007, 2009 and 2013.

1 portrait in the collection

Glossy - Faces Magazines Now

Magazines are the portrait galleries of the 90s... Glossy is about magazines. The exhibition presents the work of eight photographers, Australian by birth or long-term residency, who are producing portraits for publication in magazines around the world.

Harold Blair AO

Harold Blair AO (1924–1976), singer and Indigenous advocate, spent his youth on the Purga Mission, and began singing in local concerts on the canefields in the Childers area.

1 portrait in the collection

Julian Ashton CBE

Previous exhibition, 2014

Julian Rossi Ashton CBE (1851-1942), art teacher, artist and critic, trained in art in London and at the Académie Julian in Paris before coming to Australia to work on the Illustrated Australian News in 1878.

4 portraits in the collection

Rick Amor

21 Portraits

Rick Amor, noblest yet most unaffected of contemporary Australian portraitists, is also a painter of enigmatic, ominous landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes that haunt the viewer like dreams, dimly-recalled.

Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford

Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford (1920/1924–2007), also known as Goowoomji or Guwumji, artist and Gija elder, was born on Bedford Downs Station, near Warmun in Western Australia.

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

Tom Durkin

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

Harold Parker

Harold Parker (1873-1962), sculptor, came to Brisbane with his English parents as a three-year old.

1 portrait in the collection

Peter Wegner

Peter Wegner first participated in a group exhibition in 1977, when he had had no art training.

7 portraits in the collection

Neil Murray

Previous exhibition, 2023

Neil Murray (b. 1956), singer/songwriter, grew up in country Victoria, studied art and became a teacher.

2 portraits in the collection

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.

Christine Rivett

Amy Christine Rivett (1891–1962), doctor, contributed greatly to medicine and women's health.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Arthur Coles, c. 1971

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

Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein (c. 1870–1965), cosmetician, businesswoman and philanthropist, is the founder of one of the first international cosmetic companies.

1 portrait in the collection

Inge King AO

Inge King AO (1915–2016), sculptor, was at the forefront of the development of non-figurative sculpture in Australia and remained one of Australia’s outstanding sculptors into her 80s – a time in her life in which she continued to develop innovative work.

1 portrait in the collection

John Perceval, 1985

Two iBooks of authentic records

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Prison and death in the 19th century

Learning resources

These books include sixteen inmates including Ned Kelly, Captain Moonlite and Frederick Deeming and twelve sketches of the deceased, including several children. For Year 7 – 9 students.

Professor Suzanne Cory AC FAA FRS

Magazine article by Tim Bonyhady, 2016

Suzanne Cory AC (b. 1942) is a molecular biologist whose research has contributed to the understanding of immunology and the development of cancer.

1 portrait in the collection

Self Portrait with sun damage, 2014 by Andrew Sayers.

At easel

Tim Bonyhady recalls his experience as sitter for his close friend and former National Portrait Gallery Director, the late Andrew Sayers.

Julian Ashton Life Class, 1920

Harold Cazneaux

Purchased 2015

Michael Peck

Previous exhibition, 2013

Michael Peck, artist and academic, was born in Melbourne in 1977; he was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Art (honours) (Painting) from Monash University and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 1998.

1 portrait in the collection

Judy Cassab

The artist's diary

The artist's diary profiles six decades of Cassab's work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture.

Ginger Riley

Portrait, conté, brush and ink on paper

Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (c. 1937-2002), stockman and artist, was born in south-eastern Arnhem Land, in the coastal salt-water country of the Mara people.

1 portrait in the collection

Lord Casey, c. 1932

Charles Wheeler

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

Henry Chamberlain Russell and family at Sydney Observatory

Henry Chamberlain Russell and family at Sydney Observatory, c. 1895

Charles Bayliss

Portrait, albumen silver photograph

Gift of Joanna Russell Maher (née Windeyer) 2018

Harold Blair, 1948

Ernest Buckmaster

Purchased 2010

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

William Westall

William Westall (1781-1850), grew up in London and was taught to draw by his elder half-brother Richard, who was drawing master to Princess Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Jan Senbergs AM

Jan Senbergs AM (1939-2024) came to Australia from Latvia in 1950. He studied at the Melbourne School of Printing and Graphic Arts, where he was influenced by Leonard French.

2 portraits in the collection

The painter transmogrified and Mrs Smith

Eric Smith

Eric Smith (1919-2017), painter, was born in Brunswick, Melbourne, and trained in commercial art at the Brunswick Technical College before serving in the army during World War 2.

6 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Kenneth Rowell, 1967

David Strachan

Portrait drawings from colonial Australia

Gift of Margaret Olley 2002. Transferred from the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Elegance in exile

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.

Jeanne Pratt at home, 2015

Alana Landsberry

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Alana Landsberry and Bauer Media Australia 2019

Joan Kirner, c. 1990

Rennie Ellis

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006

Richard Gardiner Casey KG GCMG CH

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on cabinet card

Richard Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey of Berwick, Victoria and the City of Westminster KG GCMG CH (1890-1976), politician and statesman, was born in Brisbane and educated in Melbourne and at Cambridge.

3 portraits in the collection

Edward Hargraves, c. 1884

Henry King

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Dame Elizabeth Couchman DBE

Dame Elizabeth Couchman DBE (1876–1982), political activist, grew up in in Geelong and gained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Dame Margery Merlyn Baillieu Myer DBE

Dame Margery Merlyn Baillieu Myer DBE (1900–1982), philanthropist and fundraiser, was the daughter of a hotelier, George Baillieu.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Charles Edward Merrett CBE

Sir Charles Edward Merrett CBE (1863-1948), merchant and agriculturalist, was a schoolboy at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School when his father was retrenched and died.

1 portrait in the collection

Garrett Huxley

Garrett Huxley (b. 1973) was born in Melbourne and raised on the Gold Coast.

3 portraits in the collection

Paula Dawson AM

Paula Dawson AM (b. 1954), artist and university lecturer, is an internationally recognised pioneer in the field of holography.

1 portrait in the collection

Geoffrey Dyer

Geoff Dyer (1947-2020) was renowned landscape and portrait painter whose practice depicted Tasmania and its people.

1 portrait in the collection

Will Huxley

Will Huxley (b. 1982) was born in Bath, England, emigrating with his family at the age of seven to grow up in the suburbs of Perth.

3 portraits in the collection

Alan Goldberg, 2014

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870) was a poet and horseman. Well-educated, from a relatively well-to-do family, he learned to ride as a boy in England and secured a position in the South Australian Mounted Police in 1852.

1 portrait in the collection

Nick Cave, 2001 (printed 2014)

Ingvar Kenne

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

John David Armstrong

John David Armstrong (1857–1943) was a sideshow and vaudeville performer known as ‘The Australian Tom Thumb’.

2 portraits in the collection

Michael Leunig, 1995 (printed 2013)

Helga Leunig

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Helga Leunig 2013

Eleanor Dark, c. 1935 (printed 1940)

Max Dupain OBE

Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

Mona Hessing

Mona Hessing (1933-2001) weaver, was described as having made a 'very significant contribution from the late 1960s into the 1980s to the development of weaving as monumental public sculpture.

1 portrait in the collection

George Moore, 1957

Ern McQuillan OAM

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003

Marea Gazzard AM

Previous exhibition, 2010

Marea Gazzard AM (1928–2013), ceramic artist, trained at the East Sydney Technical College and London Central School for Arts and Craft.

3 portraits in the collection

Australian of the Year

Inspiring a Nation

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

At the Pantechnetheca, Exhibition, Eastern Arcade, Dominick Sonsee, the smallest man in the world

The Freak Show

Many performers availed themselves of the services of photographic studios, posing for carte de visite portraits that served as souvenirs and as instruments in the making of renown and notoriety.

The Illustrated London News

The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper.

3 portraits in the collection

Alex Miller, 1992

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Poet of the Fleeting Moment

Mark Strizic's work crosses a broad spectrum of photographic fields including urban, industrial, commercial, and architectural photography.

Vida Goldstein

Vida Goldstein (1869-1949), activist, was the daughter of energetic social reformers.

1 portrait in the collection

Carol Jerrems

Carol Jerrems (1949–1980) was a photographer known for her intimate portraits of friends, lovers and others occupying the progressive social and creative circles in which she moved.

9 portraits in the collection

Small Holdings (The Earl Carrington Baron Charles Robert Carrington)

Charles Robert Wynn-Carrington

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

2 portraits in the collection

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

Ruth Maddison

Purchased 2013

Clifton Pugh AO

Clifton Pugh AO was one of Australia’s best-known artists of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and one of its leading advocates for the arts.

11 portraits in the collection

Dame Mary Gilmore DBE

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Dame Mary Gilmore DBE (1865–1962), poet, journalist and social reformer, was born near Goulburn and had an itinerant childhood as her father moved the family around New South Wales for work.

3 portraits in the collection

Uncommon Australians

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.

Robert Rooney

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

17 portraits in the collection

Mary 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

Jeremiah Ware

Previous exhibition, 2006

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

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.

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

James G. Beaney

James George Beaney (1828–1891), doctor and philanthropist, completed an apprenticeship to a surgeon in his home town of Canterbury, Kent, before leaving to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

1 portrait in the collection

Mervyn Godfrey OAM

Mervyn Godfrey OAM (1924-2013), Dean Godfrey (b. 1970), David Godfrey (b.

2 portraits in the collection

Dean Godfrey

Mervyn Godfrey OAM (1924-2013), Dean Godfrey (b. 1970), David Godfrey (b.

1 portrait in the collection

David Godfrey

Mervyn Godfrey OAM (1924-2013), Dean Godfrey (b. 1970), David Godfrey (b.

1 portrait in the collection

Murray Godfrey

Mervyn Godfrey OAM (1924-2013), Dean Godfrey (b. 1970), David Godfrey (b.

1 portrait in the collection

Jan Senbergs, 2015

Magazine article by Katherine Russell, 2007

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015

Journey into Headspace...

The theme for the National Portrait Gallery's eighth exhibition of student portraiture was The Journey.

Marjorie Cotton Isherwood

Marjorie Cotton Isherwood (1913–2003) was the first professionally qualified children's librarian in New South Wales and many of her initiatives continue today.

1 portrait in the collection

Norma Redpath

Norma Redpath OBE (1928-2013), sculptor, studied at Swinburne and RMIT and undertook broad travel studies in Europe in the 1950s.

2 portraits in the collection

Gideon Obarzanek

Archived media releases 2019

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

1 portrait in the collection

National Portrait Gallery takes out top gong in MAPDA awards

16 May 2019

The National Portrait Gallery is thrilled to be named the winner of the Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards in the category of exhibition major catalogue level B, for our publication So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history.

Jan Senbergs, 1976

Keith Looby

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Padraic McGuinness 2001
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

John Landy AC CVO MBE

Previous exhibition, 2018

Melbourne-born track and field athlete John Landy AC CVO MBE (1930–2022) came to the nation’s attention as a young man in the mid-1950s, as he followed his first Olympic competition at Helsinki in 1952 with a series of extraordinary races over the course of the next four years.

1 portrait in the collection

National Photographic Portrait Prize 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.

Dr Arthur Martin a'Beckett

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

Robert Menzies, Lancaster House, London, 1956 (printed 2000)

Ming Vase (Sir Robert Menzies), c. 1970

Les Tanner, Gus McLaren

Portrait, glazed ceramic

Purchased 2004

Sidney Nolan, Western Australia, 1962 (printed 2000)

The Aboriginal community of Lake Tyers, Gippsland

John Bulmer

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2003

John Bulmer (1833-1913), missionary and clergyman, came to Australia in 1852 and worked as a cabinetmaker in Melbourne for two years before going to the goldfields.

1 portrait in the collection

Mrs Cameron and the V&A

In March 2003 Magda Keaney travelled to London to join the photography section of the Victoria & Albert Museum for three months.

David Dridan OAM

Portrait, ceramic and cork

David Dridan (b. 1932), artist, studied at the South Australian School of Art and later at East Sydney Technical College.

1 portrait in the collection

Billy Hughes bottle stopper, 1911-1921

Mashman Bros Ltd

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Matthew Burnett

Previous exhibition, 2023

Matthew Burnett (1839–1896), the ‘Yorkshire Evangelist’, spent more than twenty years denouncing alcohol in the Australian colonies.

1 portrait in the collection

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.

Neville Gruzman, 1968

Eric Smith

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

Robert Whitaker

Robert Whitaker, English photographer, spent three years in Melbourne in the early 1960s, becoming friends with Mirka and Georges Mora, Barry Humphries, Germaine Greer, the Heide crowd and Martin Sharp and Richard Neville.

1 portrait in the collection

Barry Tuckwell AC OBE

Barry Tuckwell AC OBE (1931-2020), horn soloist, conductor, teacher and author spent his early years in Melbourne, where he learned a variety of instruments including piano and violin.

1 portrait in the collection

Nick Cave, 1994

Bleddyn Butcher

Previous exhibition, 2020

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Study of Archbishop Daniel Mannix, 1962

Clifton Pugh AO

Portrait, oil on composition board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Bea Maddock AM

Bea Maddock AM (1934–2016) studied at the Hobart Technical College in the early 1950s before travelling to London, where she attended the Slade School from 1959 to 1961.

2 portraits in the collection

George Michael Prendergast

Carrington Photo Galleries

George Michael Prendergast (1854-1937), printer and premier, was born to an Irish goldminer and his wife and was apprenticed to the printer of the Pleasant Creek News in 1868.

1 portrait in the collection

Clara Crosbie, aged 12 years, now on exhibition at the Australian Waxworks

Clara Crosbie, aged 12 years, now on exhibition at the Australian Waxworks, c. 1885

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018

A Collins Street Surgeon "Patients and Diamonds" [Dr Beaney F.R.C.S.], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Rod McNicol

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2017

Rod McNicol (b. 1946), photographic artist, studied photography at Prahran College in Melbourne, where he formed a close friendship with Athol Shmith.

1 portrait in the collection

Humour’s warm refuge

Angus Trumble pays tribute to John Clarke.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (c. 1932–2002) was a founding member of the artists cooperative established at Papunya in the early 1970s and one of the most renowned practitioners within the Western Desert art movement.

2 portraits in the collection

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

Robert Rooney

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

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

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

Sir Gerard Smith

Sir Gerard Smith (1839-1920), governor, was educated at Eton before purchasing a commission as an ensign and lieutenant in the Scots Fusilier Regiment of Foot Guards, with whom he served in Canada in 1863-1864.

1 portrait in the collection

John Vickery

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

1 portrait in the collection

On the passage and pace of time

In shock it fluctuates and with age, accelerates. Remembering the First World War and the Easter Rising.

Robert Neill

Robert Neill arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Edinburgh in 1820 with his free-settler parents and two siblings.

1 portrait in the collection

Ron Barassi AM

Ron Barassi AM (1936‒2023) is among the most celebrated individuals in the history of Australian Rules football.

2 portraits in the collection

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

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

David Warren, c. 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Commonwealth Department of Defence 2005

Jeanne Pratt AC

Jeanne Pratt AC (b. c. 1936), born to Jewish parents in Poland before the war, came to Australia as a three year old.

1 portrait in the collection

Patrick Dodson

Patrick Dodson (b. 1948), Indigenous advocate and senator for Western Australia, is a Yawaru man who was born in Broome but spent most of his childhood and early schooling in the Northern Territory.

1 portrait in the collection

Wally (Wouter) De Backer

Wally (Wouter) De Backer (b. 1980), a popular multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter is known as ‘Goyte’, pronounced Gauthier, derived from his Flemish parents’ pet name for him.

1 portrait in the collection

Rick Amor

Rick Amor (b. 1948) is a Victorian-based painter, printmaker and sculptor.

27 portraits in the collection

Portrait of David Dridan, 1992

Brian Dunlop

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Dridan OAM 2017

Maria Kozic

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

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Ernest Fisk, n.d. (after 1937)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Jane Fisk 2012

Jaq Grantford

Melbourne-born artist Jaq Grantford has been a finalist multiple times in portrait prizes such as the Black Swan Prize, the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and the Portia Geach Memorial Award.

1 portrait in the collection

Ngayulu Minyma Tjanpinya, I am a Tjanpi Woman

Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM

Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM (b. c 1947) is a senior Tjanpi Desert Weaver with work spanning across printmaking, ceramics and fibre-based work.

1 portrait in the collection

Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck (b. 1958), sculptor, first attracted widespread attention in 1997, when his poignant work Dead Dad was featured in the landmark exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy, London and subsequently shown in Berlin and New York.

1 portrait in the collection

Ron Barassi, 1975

Rennie Ellis

Magazine article by Lauren Dalla, 2003

Purchased 2006

All you can eat

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

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

Phillip Brophy

1 portrait in the collection

Violet Teague

Violet Teague (1872–1951) was among Edwardian Australia's most fashionable and assured portraitists, although the art historical establishment was slow to acknowledge it.

2 portraits in the collection

Edmund Jowett

Edmund Jowett (1858-1936), pastoralist, businessman and politician, was the son of a stuffmaker and learned the wool trade at his uncle's mill in Thornton, Yorkshire.

1 portrait in the collection

David Strachan

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

Shaun Gladwell

Shaun Gladwell (b. 1972), new-media artist, photographer and painter, gained his qualifications in art at Sydney College of the Arts and the University of New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Maria Kozic and Philip Brophy 1, 1981, 1981 (printed 2012)

Robert Rooney

William B. Latimer, W B Latimer Photo Art Studio

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Reverend Nathaniel Kinsman, c. 1880

Purchased 2013

Archie Roach AC

Batchelder & Company Photo

Archie Roach AC (1956–2022), singer/songwriter and storyteller, has been described as the voice of the Stolen Generations.

2 portraits in the collection

Richard Henry Horne, mid 1860s

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

John Landy, c. 1954

Ern McQuillan OAM

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

Henry Edwards

Henry (Harry) Edwards (1827–1891), actor and entomologist, arrived in Melbourne in 1853 after a short-lived attempt at studying for a career in law.

1 portrait in the collection

Xavier Herbert, early 1980s (printed 2018)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Right Rev Dr Lawrence Bonaventure Sheil OSF, c. 1872

Bardwell's Royal Studio

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

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

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

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

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007

Stephen Murray-Smith

Stephen Murray-Smith (1922-1988), writer and editor, was educated at Geelong Grammar and the University of Melbourne before serving in New Guinea during World War 2.

1 portrait in the collection

Carol McGregor

Contributing artists

Born: 1961, Hastings, New Zealand
Works: Brisbane

Eva Besen AO

Eva Besen AO (1928–2021), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with her husband Marc Besen AC.

1 portrait in the collection

Archie Roach, 1992 (printed 2010)

Bill McAuley

Purchased 2010

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022)

9 September 2022

Media

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

Doodles of the Diva

Three tiny sketches of Dame Nellie Melba in the NPG collection were created by the artist who was to go on to paint the most imposing representation of the singer: Rupert Bunny.

Barry Tuckwell, 1991

June Mendoza

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Tuckwell 2018

Marc Besen AC

Marcus (Marc) Besen AC (1923–2023), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with his wife Eva Besen AO.

1 portrait in the collection

Penny Fowler AM, John Barrington AM, Heidi Victoria, Elizabeth Dibbs, Tom Mosby, Hayley Baillie, Hugo Michell, Elizabeth Pakchung, Valerie Tam

The Board

Governance & Board

The Board oversees the Gallery's strategic directions, objectives and governance.

Robert Fielding

Robert Fielding (b. 1969) is a contemporary artist of Pakistani, Afghan, Western Arrente and Yankunytjatjara descent, who lives in Mimili Community in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

24 portraits in the collection

Edmund Capon AM OBE

Edmund Capon AM OBE (1940–2019), gallery director, commenced his museum career at a commercial gallery in London whilst a student at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

2 portraits in the collection

John Dunn

John Dunn (1802-1894), flour miller and philanthropist, eked out a mean living as a mill manager in England before migrating to South Australia with his wife and son in 1840.

1 portrait in the collection

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM (1937-2022), Arrernte and Anmatjere woman, Aboriginal activist, former actress and nun, was born at Artekerre soak on Utopia Cattle Station in the Northern Territory, the daughter of Allan and Ruby Kunoth.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Oswald Brierly

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

1 portrait in the collection

Discussion between Bob Hawke and Yunupingu, Burunga Festival, Northern Territory

Discussion between Bob Hawke and Yunupingu, Burunga Festival, Northern Territory, 1988 (printed 2015)

Sue Ford

Purchased 2015

Keith Miller, early 1950s (printed 2008)

Max Dupain OBE

Purchased 2008

Louise, daughter of the Hon. L. L. Smith by Tom Roberts, 1888

An Australian in Paris

This week it is impossible not to contemplate the ways in which France has touched many Australian lives.

Australian Tapestry Workshop

Archived media releases 2016

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

2 portraits in the collection

Younger Australians more engaged with arts and history

11 April 2016

The second annual brand-awareness snapshot of the National Portrait Gallery is again positive, with indicators moving in the right direction – for the Gallery and for Australia’s cultural engagement.

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.

Arcadia media information

31 July 2014

Archived media releases 2014

Press releases and image downloads for media.

NPG Announces departure of Director, Karen Quinlan AM

3 August 2022

Media

National Portrait Gallery Chair Penny Fowler announced today that NPG Director Karen Quinlan will leave the Gallery in September to take up a new position as Chief Executive Officer of Arts Centre Melbourne.

Ada Jemima Crossley

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

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, 1824 by James Thomson

Audacity, audacity, audacity

Angus delves into the biographies of two ambitious characters; Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir John Pope-Hennessy.

Nellie Melba, 1898

Ernest Walter Histed

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Portrait of Ambrose Patterson, 1901-1902

Hugh Ramsay

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

Gift of the Estate of John Oswald Wicking 2003

Robert O'Hara Burke, Leader of the Victorian Expedition

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

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007

Showing character

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

William Barak at work on the drawing ‘Ceremony’ at Coranderrk, 1902

Johannes Heyer

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, sepia toned on paper

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

Charles Perry, c. 1863

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2001

Polly Borland

Portrait, albumen paper photograph on carte de visite

Purchased 2002

The Burke and Wills Monument, 1869

Thomas Foster Chuck

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Leigh Bowery, 1984

Robyn Beeche

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

Tim Burstall

Fredrick Charles Burman after John Cochran

Tim Burstall (1927-2004) set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.

2 portraits in the collection

Reverend Daniel Draper, c. 1866

Purchased 2010

Ronald Dale Barassi, 2000

Lewis Miller

Gift of the artist 2007. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Edward Hammond Hargraves

Edward Hammond Hargraves (1816–1891), adventurer and speculator, claimed credit for the discovery of payable goldfields in New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Richard Read Jnr

Richard Read junior arrived in Sydney from his native London in November 1819.

2 portraits in the collection

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

Untitled #21/09 (after Ricci, 1700; featuring Matthew Mitcham), 2009

Ross Watson

Portrait, oil on board

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

The fat of the land

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

Rosina Carandini, mid 1860s

Charles Hewitt

Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Madame Marie Carandini

Marie Carandini (née Burgess, 1826–1894), aka 'Madame Carandini', was seven years old when her family arrived in Van Diemen's Land as assisted immigrants.

1 portrait in the collection

Mr and Mrs Case, 1864

Alexander Fox and Co

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Angus Trumble

12 October 2022

Media

Members of the Board, Foundation and staff of the National Portrait Gallery are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Angus Trumble.

The Multifarious Career of George Selth Coppin

George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.

Robert O'Hara Burke, c. 1860

Melbourne and Sydney Photographic Co

Portrait, watercolour, ink and gouache on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Ellyse Perry, 2016

Fiona McMonagle

Purchased 2017

The Textiles Scientist, 2018 by Kate Atkinson

Textiles Scientist Voted the People’s Favourite

27 March 2019

Archived media releases 2019

The black and white portrait of an elderly woman with sidelong glance and irreverent, contemplative smile has taken out the people’s choice award in this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Jenny Kee AO

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2022

Jenny Kee AO (b. 1947) is a fashion designer and an Australian style icon.

1 portrait in the collection

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

The last word

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

In memory of the Rev William Hill, 1869

Charles Wherrett

Portrait, pokerwork on spotted gum

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Joan Kerr, 2004

Peter Drewett

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of James Semple Kerr 2004

Frank Lowy, 1998 (printed 2011)

Lorrie Graham

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Patrick Corrigan AM

Patrick Corrigan AM (b. 1932), businessman, art collector and arts patron, was born in Hanghow (Hankou) in China.

3 portraits 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

Rt Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, c. 1962

Victor Greenhalgh

Portrait, cast bronze

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

Fannie Carandini, mid 1860s

Charles Hewitt

Archived media releases 2013

Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Paul Kelly and The Portraits media information

18 June 2013

Paul Kelly & The Portraits presents a multifaceted image of the performer over the course of his career.

Judicial portraits

Magazine article by Leslie Moran, 2007

Leslie Moran investigates the portraits of judges in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Olga Radalyski prison records, on loan from the Public Record Office of Victoria.

The sensational denouement of the case

The Yarra Boot Trunk Tragedy, 12 January 1899

Portrait, oil and polymer vinyl paint on canvas

The 'Yarra Boot Trunk Tragedy' unfolded a week before Christmas 1898, when some neighbourhood boys noticed a wooden box floating in the river at Richmond.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 2002

Tim Johnson

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Charles Blondin, 1874

Timothy Noble

Magazine article by Krysia Kitch, 2017

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

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

Back in black

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

Sir Ernest Fisk

Archived media releases 2017

Sir Ernest Fisk (1886-1965), radio pioneer and businessman, began his career as one of the earliest wireless telegraphists in the British Post Office.

2 portraits in the collection

Selfie Factory, 2017 by Ralph Kenke and Elmar Trefz

Ralph Kenke and Elmar Trefz win Digital Portraiture Award with Selfie Factory

1 December 2017

The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce Mr Ralph Kenke and Mr Elmar Trefz are the winners of the Digital Portraiture Award 2017 for their submission Selfie Factory.

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

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

Brenda L Croft

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

Purchased 2023

Bloodlines

Magazine article by Michelle Fracaro, 2004

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

Australian Love Stories

4 January 2021

Archived media releases 2021

A major new exhibition celebrating love in all its guises. Opening 20 March 2021.

The importance of being bearded

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2012

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.

Arcadia (Wayne Lynch and Bob McTavish), 1969 (reprinted 2011)

John Witzig

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

Gift of the artist 2011

A real Pratt

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

Robert Kermode, c. 1840

Henry Mundy

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

Martha Kermode, c. 1840

Henry Mundy

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

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

A & G Taylor

Portrait, albumen photograph carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Chang the Chinese Giant with his wife Kin Foo and manager Edward Parlett

Chang the Chinese Giant with his wife Kin Foo and manager Edward Parlett, c. 1871

Archibald McDonald

Purchased 2010

The story of us

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

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

Barry Humphries

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2008

Barry Humphries AO CBE (1934–2023), actor, writer and artist, was the world's all-time most successful solo theatrical performer.

12 portraits in the collection

Form and reality

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

The champs

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2008

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

King George V

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

4 portraits in the collection

Queen Mary

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

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

3 portraits in the collection

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

Brenda L Croft

Purchased 2023

Unboxed

Magazine article by Sandra Bruce, 2022

Sandra Bruce explores a new acquisition that has within it a story of interconnectivities in the Australian art world.

In and out of focus

Magazine article by Gael Newton, 2017

Gael Newton looks at Australian photography, film and the sixties through the novel lens of Mark Strizic.

Melanie Faith Dove

Finalist interviews

I had been watching Agnes with intrigue, her face and profile were so mesmerizing. On our final day together I pulled her aside and convinced her that she had such an amazing face that I needed to get a photograph for myself. It was very spontaneous in that I decided quickly how it would best look and shot it in only two frames.

Sir Les Patterson, 1999

Polly Borland

Magazine article by Emeritus Professor Jaynie Anderson AM, 2015

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Sitter still

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

A quiet moment

Magazine article by Helene Ladomirska, 2006

As Bryan Westwood’s portrait of Brian Dunlop hangs adjacent to Brian Dunlop’s portrait of the philanthropist Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, we see the artist of one work as the subject of the other.

Velasquez Touch

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers, explores the creative collaborations between four Australian artists living in Paris during the first years of the twentieth century.

What the tree saw: David Foster, 2018

by Jacqui Stockdale

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

Anna F. Walker

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2011

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

True fella

Michael Desmond profiles the Australian songwriter and performer Neil Murray and his contribution to Australian music.

Girl with Cigarette, c. 1925 by Agnes Goodsir

Agnes enigma

Magazine article by Karen Quinlan AM, 2019

Karen Quinlan considers the case of Agnes Goodsir, whose low profile in Australia belies her overseas acclaim.

Figurative foundation

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and art of the Australian artist Janet Dawson.

Handing on the baton

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2009

Michael Desmond explores the life of ballerina Irina Baranova through the portrait by Australian artist Jenny Sages.

Friends and Acquaintances

Magazine article by Michelle Fracaro, 2005

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

The line of fire

Michelle Fracaro examines the life of World War II nurse Margaret Anderson, whose portrait by Napier Waller is in the NPG collection.

Lauded legacy

Magazine article by Karl James, 2015

Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.

Mrs NR Mackintosh (Anne) by Ruth Hollick

Natural, artistic and unselfconscious

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2016

Angus Trumble gazes at the once bright star of photographer Ruth Hollick.

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.

Announcing.... In their own words

24 November 2020

Archived media releases 2020

Inspiring Australians tell their own stories in a unique new gallery audio tour, developed in collaboration with the National Library of Australia.

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

Selected images

Take a peek at a selection of the portraits you can see in the exhibition.

Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet

Magazine article by Stuart Purves, 2016

Louis-Claude Desaulses de Freycinet (1779–1842), hydrographer and cartographer, sailed with Nicolas Baudin on the Expédition aux terres australes, a journey of discovery, commissioned by Napoléon, to the unknown southern coast of New Holland.

1 portrait in the collection

Bonfire of the vanities

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

The National Portrait Prizes

29 January 2020

Archived media releases 2020

The National Portrait Gallery today announced finalists for the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize, a national new $75,000 prize for Australian portrait painting, and released selected images from the final prize pool for the popular National Photography Portrait Prize.

Gordon Darling Hall, National Portrait Gallery

Architecture

About us

Natural light and human proportions – the design by Johnson Pilton Walker

Past directors

History

Directors of the National Portrait Gallery from 1998 to today.

The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2012

Imagination

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.

Picture this...

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

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.

The Stories Beneath

The Alcoa World Alumina Australia gift.

Brolga

A Queer Koori Wonderland

Event, Friday 3 May

Go find your costume box and get ready to shake your tail feathers at Brolga, this year’s iteration of the National Portrait Gallery’s 18+ late-night event!

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

Enigma

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2015

Grace Carroll contemplates the curious case of Christian Waller.

Forum participants

Biographies of participants in the Writing lives, revealing lives forum.

The selfie stick

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

Last week ABC Television came to interview me about selfie sticks. The story was prompted by the announcement that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has lately prohibited the use of these inside their galleries. So far as I am aware we have not yet encountered the phenomenon, but no doubt we will before too long.

Facing Facts

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.

Getting a head

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2015

Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.

Real close

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2012

Peter Ciemitis breached regulations when creating the portrait of the polymath environmental scientist George Seddon.

Portrait of Private Edward Lello 1915 by Darge Photographic Company

Final frame

Magazine article by Karl James, 2016

Karl James reflects on soldier portraiture during the Great War.

Sibly irresistible

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2019

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

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.

Eating the seasons

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2019

Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.

Sure thing

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2009

Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie 1887 by Frederick Woodhouse Snr. is a portrait of James Scobie, well known jockey and eminent horse trainer.

Conduct becoming

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2017

Penelope Grist speaks to Bill Henson and Simone Young to discover the origins of the artist’s stunning photographic triptych.

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.

The inner voice

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2011

Dr Christopher Chapman, curator of Inner Worlds: Portraits & Psychology looks at Albert Tucker's Heidelberg military hospital portraits.

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

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush

Magazine article by April Thompson, 2013

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.

Cormac + Callum Kenne, My Children, Sydney, Australia, 2009

Citizen Kenne

April Thompson explores an exhibition of Ingvar Kenne’s global portrait project.

200 Years of Portraiture

Magazine article by Christine Clark, 2011

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

Man of the year

Exhibition curator Christine Clark introduces the work by Indonesian artist Agus Suwage created for Beyond the self: Contemporary portraiture from Asia.

Through blue eyes

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.

You are who?

Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.

Untitled, Conductors, Tramways series, 1990 © Matt Nettheim

Back track

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Penelope Grist finds photographer Matt Nettheim re-visiting a formative and fulfilling career tram stop.

You beauty

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

Thousand mile stare

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2004

John Elliott talks about his photographic portrait practice, including his iconic image of Slim Dusty arm-in-arm with Dame Edna Everage.

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.

Study in scarlet

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2018

Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.

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.

Wicked but Virtuous

Magazine article by Lee Tulloch, 2011

Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.

Self Portrait, Stuart Campbell by Stuart Campbell

The essence of you

Lee Tulloch remembers her great friend NIDA-trained actor turned photographer Stuart Campbell.

Two painters

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2007

Chris Chapman explains how Matthys Gerber bridges the gap between abstraction and portraiture.

Portraits and other stories

Magazine article by Christine Clark, 2006

As the National Portrait Gallery opens its exhibition of portrait and figurative work by veteran photographer Sam Haskins, the artist reflects on the highlights of his fifty-year career so far.

Painting mates

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2011

Michael Desmond discusses Fred Williams' portraits of friends, artist Clifton Pugh, David Aspden and writer Stephen Murray-Smith, and the stylistic connections between his portraits and landscapes.

Hyperversity

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the larger-than-life Australian performance artist, Leigh Bowery.

Oz and beyond

Magazine article by Diana Warnes, 2007

Martin Sharp fulfils the Pop art idiom of merging art and life.

Skyhooks (Red Symons, Bob Starkie, Shirley Strachan, Greg Macainsh, Freddie Strauks) in Parker’s studio, Fitzroy, 1975 David Parker

Cool cool world

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Penelope Grist unpacks photographs by David Parker, who captured the phenomenal emergence of the 1970s and 80s Melbourne music scene.

Elle on wheels

Magazine article by Lucy Quinn, 2013

Lucy Quinn compares the approaches of three photographers lured to the action and culture of roller derby.

Seeing stars

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

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

Aretha Brown

In conversation

Magazine article by Rebecca Ray, 2023

Gumbaynggirr artist Aretha Brown talks street art, collaboration and ghost stories with First Nations Curator and Meriam woman, Rebecca Ray.

Poison pen

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

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

Material culture

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.

Suave

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.

Finest quality

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

Aussies all

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2006

The exhibition Aussies all features the ecclectic portrait photography of Rennie Ellis which captures Australian life during the 70s and 80s.

Chairman Sid Myer AM, Hayley Baillie, Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, Patrick Corrigan AM, Marilyn Darling AC, Tim Fairfax AC, Penny Fowler AM, John Liangis, Dr Helen Nugent AC and Nigel Satterley AM

Foundation Members

Foundation

Chairman Sid Myer AM, Hayley Baillie, Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, Patrick Corrigan AM, Marilyn Darling AC, Tim Fairfax AC, Penny Fowler AM, John Liangis, Dr Helen Nugent AC and Nigel Satterley AM.

Rock Island Bend. Franklin River, South West Tasmania, 1979 by Peter Dombrovskis

Written in Water

Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.

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

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

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.

The bright-eyed Mariner

A new colonial portrait brings a zealous captain near.

Trevor Jamieson, 2016 by Brett Canet-Gibson

The more things change...

NPPP 2017 exhibition essay

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.

Giving a dam

True south #1

Magazine article by Karen Vickery, 2016

Ensconced and meditative in crisp Tasmania, Joanna Gilmour pays tribute to passionate green advocate and photographer Olegas Truchanas.

Diamond Doll

Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.

Anne-Louise Lambert as Miranda Courtesy Picnic Productions

Rock star

Magazine article by Jennifer Coombes, 2018

Jennifer Coombes explores the lush images of Picnic at Hanging Rock, featuring Anne-Louise Lambert’s Miranda, the face of the film.

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

Mother’s muse

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2020

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

Give me five

Magazine article by Karen Quinlan AM, 2021

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

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 Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

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.

The portrait writ large

Magazine article by Karen Vickery, 2015

Karen Vickery on Chang the Chinese giant in Australia.

Graeme Drendel

I like talking about Drendel’s pictures as if they expressed dreams of my own.

Mexico from the Palace painted by ‘Maximilian Emperor'

Empirical art

Magazine article by Tedi Bills, 2016

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

It's a Mora!

Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.

The silent partner

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.

Shall I raise my eyebrows and gasp? (Alex), 2011 by TextaQueen

Pen power

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2015

Politics and personae in the portraiture of TextaQueen by Jane Raffan.

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.

Less than six degrees of separation

Lecture, 28 May 2011

Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.

Darren McDonald

Magazine article by Jennifer Higgie, 2022

The wild balancing act of McDonald’s home décor (is that there as a joke? where do I actually sit down? is this ironic or what? what a lovely photo of Darren and Robin in Europe!) is reflected in his own personality.

Women make history

Jennifer Higgie uncovers the intriguing stories behind portraits of women by women in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.

A potpourri of portraits

Magazine article by Natalie Wilson, 2023

Archie 100 curator (and detective) Natalie Wilson’s nationwide search for Archibald portraits unearthed the fascinating stories behind some long-lost treasures.

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.

Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster

To the end of the earth

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2012

The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.

Beguiling impressions

Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.

Home and away

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

Sir William Dobell painted the portraits of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones and Sir Hudson Fysh, who did much to promote the image of Australia in this country and abroad.

What price self?

Jane Raffan investigates auction sales of self portraits nationally and internationally.

Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children, 1940

The incomparable Beaton

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

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

More cash than dash

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

Starry knight

Aircraft designer, pilot and entrepreneur, Sir Lawrence Wackett rejoins friends and colleagues on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.

Some prime ministers

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

Fiona McMonagle

Magazine article by Aimee Board, 2017

Fiona aims to create a dangerous situation with a flood of water on the paper, forcing each work to the point where it can fail, and then rescuing it.

Woman with Fair Hair and Pink Cardigan, 1949 by John Perceval.

The family scene

Magazine article, 2016

Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.

Progressive pictures

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

History

About us

How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be

20/20 launch speech

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

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

Mugshots

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

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2019

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

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

The Royal she

Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.

A sketch for some portraits

Magazine article by Judith Pugh, 2005

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

Practising the Minuet (Miss Hilda Spong)

An actress and her fans

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

Dr. Sarah Engledow discovers the amazing life of Ms. Hilda Spong, little remembered star of the stage, who was captured in a portrait by Tom Roberts.

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

Unknown drawer

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

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

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.

Generous Janice

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

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

An evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

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

Faces of war

Lecture, 14 May 2011

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.

Painting writing

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

The personal and the historical

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 Bare story

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

Christmas Island

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

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.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay