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Paul Capsis, 2004

Gift of the artist 2017

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.

2015-17 Acquisition Fund

From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.

Catherine Livingstone, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2018

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Equation of a life – a portrait of Derek Denton

The National Portrait Gallery, has welcomed the newest portrait commission of Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC by Evert Ploeg.

Fred Hilmer, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018

Desert Island Discs

I agonized over the choice of four songs to take with me to the ABC Studios for Alex Sloan’s Canberra 666 afternoon program, a sort of iteration of the old BBC Desert Island Discs.

No shirt, no service

Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.

The animating signature

Joanna Gilmore delights in the affecting drawings of Mathew Lynn.

Twin chics

Joanna Gilmour on the exuberant union of fashion pioneers Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson, captured in luminescent splendour by artist Carla Fletcher.

The life of Bryant

Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.

Earth to earth

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

Portrait Donors

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.