National Portrait Gallery

2019 rectification work

We’ll be closing our doors for a little while for rectification work from 23 April until August 2019, but you’ll still be able to check out a raft of travelling exhibitions, exciting programs and happy snaps as we set off on an actual and virtual adventure.

Elle Macpherson, 1995 photographed by Andrew Macpherson

Women in Vogue

Celebrating 60 Years in Australia

Opening in October 2019, this exhibition showcases 60 years of the Vogue Australia archive together with a special tribute to some remarkable Australian women who have featured in the pages of Vogue, and includes iconic portraits of Kylie Minogue and Elle Macpherson, among others. Early bird tickets on sale now.

Outdoor portrait conversations

Mal Meninga by Cathy Weiszmann

Sunday 21 July 2019

1:30 – 3:00pm

Meet for slow looking and sketching at selected public art portraits, facilitated by members of the National Portrait Gallery Access and Learning team.

Bookings required

Hyperconnected virtual tour

Friday 26 July 2019

11:30am – 12:00pm; 2:30 – 3:00pm

Join us virtually on a live highlights tour, from the comfort of your own home. Ask questions, see the collection, and hear some of the stories behind the portraits.

Bookings required

Archibald Prize day trip 2019

Thursday 8 August 2019

7:00am – 7:00pm

Join us on a fabulous day trip to the Art Gallery of NSW, where everything is taken care of for you. View the Archibald, Wynn & Sulman prizes and take the tour

Bookings required

Hyperconnected virtual tour

Tuesday 13 August 2019

11:30am – 12:00pm; 2:30 – 3:00pm

Join us virtually on a live highlights tour, from the comfort of your own home. Ask questions, see the collection, and hear some of the stories behind the portraits.

Bookings required

Outdoor portrait conversations

Poet’s Corner by Cathy Weiszmann

Sunday 18 August 2019

1:30 – 3:00pm

Meet for slow looking and sketching at selected public art portraits, facilitated by members of the National Portrait Gallery Access and Learning team.

Bookings required

Hyperconnected virtual tour

Thursday 12 September 2019

11:30am – 12:00pm; 2:30 – 2:30pm

Join us virtually on a live highlights tour, from the comfort of your own home. Ask questions, see the collection, and hear some of the stories behind the portraits.

Bookings required

More events

Portrait 62

Autumn 2019

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

More Portrait magazines

All the stories, in your hands

Try our new iOS app

Wherever you are, the app is a great way to explore our collection.

"Peace and War" (A.A Greenwood Hales) (Image plate from Vanity Fair), 1908 by Sir Leslie Ward

Born on this day

Alfred Arthur Greenwood Hales

More portrait anniversaries

Portrait Gallery Foundation

Annual Appeal 2019

Your generous support of the Exhibition Fund will provide resources for our talented team to research and develop new exhibition concepts, in collaboration with existing and new international partners.

Browse the collection

Portraits of people who have influenced and contributed to the shaping of Australian society.

New painting prize

The Darling Portrait Prize is a new annual prize for Australian portrait painters, painting Australian sitters. The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.

Education

Information for educators, education tour companies and school groups across all levels.

Portrait of Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke (Sass & Bide), 2008 by Deborah Paauwe

Circle of Friends membership

Enjoy all the benefits of belonging to this vibrant, creative gallery!

Venue hire

Hold your event in one of our gorgeous spaces, day or evening.

About the Gallery

All about our history, building, employment and governance.

Support portraiture

We depend on your support to keep creating our programs, exhibitions, publications and building collection.

Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, 15 Jan 1969 by David Combe

Peaceful front

by David Gist, 13 March 2019

‘Is this one of yours?’ David Combe still remembers reading the letter from his father in early 1969. Like every soldier serving in Vietnam, he valued any missive from home.

More assortments

Tweets by @PortraitAu

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In honour of NAIDOC week 2019 and this year's theme of Voice. Treaty. Truth. we're sharing portraits from our collection, celebrating the voices and stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We pay our respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which the National Portrait Gallery stands. We acknowledge all First Nations elders: past, present and emerging. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1933-2002) was a pioneer of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement that emerged at the Papunya settlement in Central Australia. A member of the Anmatyerre tribe, he was born on Napperby Station near Alice Springs. While working as a stockman, he developed an extensive knowledge of the Dreaming trails and sites that crisscross the McDonnell Ranges. This later informed a series of large 'map paintings' in which he portrayed these trails as deeds of title to his ancestral land. A retrospective in London in 1988 and his first solo exhibition - also in London - in 1990 generated critical acclaim in Europe and North America. Toward the end of his life Tjapaltjarri was widely considered to be one of Australia's finest painters. Portrait: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 2002 by Tim Johnson oil and polymer vinyl paint on canvas #CliffordPossumTjapaltjarri #TimJohnson #NAIDOC #NAIDOCweek #VoiceTreatyTruth #LetsWorkTogetherForASharedFuture #WorkTogether #SharedFuture #PortraitAu #NationalPortraitGallery #NPG

A post shared by National Portrait Gallery, Aus (@portraitau) on Jul 12, 2019 at 6:25pm PDT

Tweets by @PortraitAu