Skip to main content

What's on

Prizes

Watch

The Gallery

Governance & Board

Circle of Friends

Learn

Access

Search the website

close close

What's on The Portraits The Gallery Learn Watch More O

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Search / cherry hood

image not online

William P. Dowling

William Paul Dowling (1824–1877) is thought to have studied art in his native Dublin before settling in London, where he worked as a draughtsman while trying to establish himself as a portraitist.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Ali, 2014 by Hoda Afshar

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015

Previous exhibition, 2015

The National Photographic Portrait Prize 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.

Anna Volska

Anna Volska

Anna Volska (b. 1944), actor, came from Poland to Australia with her mother when she was seven.

1 portrait in the collection

Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver, 2018

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2018

Lauren in Red, 2003

Is the truth of portraiture vested exclusively in likeness?

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

Curator Michael Desmond introduces the exhibition Truth and Likeness, an investigation of the importance of likeness to portraiture.

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe (b. 1964), actor, was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He moved at the age of four to Australia, where his parents worked as caterers on TV and movie sets.

2 portraits in the collection

Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver AO

Jacki Weaver AO (b. 1947), actor, was a household name in Australia for 40 years before rising to international prominence.

1 portrait in the collection

William Johnson (1873—1948) by Percy Leason

Recognition

Percy Leason's Aboriginal Portraits

Previous exhibition, 1999

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

Hugh 2015, by Warwick Baker

Friends

About Face article

Warwick Baker’s photos of his friends are intimate. They hold a stillness that allows their subjects to be at ease.

Kevin Gilbert and Joe in discussion outside Anti-Bicentennial and Treaty Meeting Balmain Town Hall, Sydney

Kevin Gilbert

Kevin Gilbert (1933-1993), Indigenous activist, writer and artist, wrote the first play by an Aboriginal person to be publicly performed in Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe, 1995 (printed 2016)

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver, 2018

by John Tsiavis

General content

Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2018

William Robinson, 2016 by Mark Mohell

William Robinson

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Unique in the world, perhaps, is a bronze sculpture that fuses the age-old human portrait bronze tradition, and the later genre of the bronze pug figurine: that’d be William Robinson’s Self-portrait with pug.

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.

Lee Lin Chin

Icons

Parliament House

Touring exhibition, 2019

When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

Hugo at home (Hugo Weaving)

Nicholas Harding

Previous exhibition, 2017

Nicholas Harding: 28 portraits features paintings of Robert Drewe, John Bell and Hugo Weaving alongside gorgeously coloured recent oil portraits, delicate gouaches and bold ink and charcoal drawings.

© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency