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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.

The Hoff

The image of a hairy swag-wielding bushman might be one popularly associated with Australia in the late nineteenth century.

But war, independence and new nationhood created different ideas about identity in the early decades of the twentieth, when the bearded, beer-sodden bushmen gave way to a beach-going urban Australian specimen. These were the Australians whose bodies were celebrated in the work of artists like Rayner Hoff and others of neo-classical bent. The Hoff is like a sportier, more worldly model of The Lawson.

1 The Hoff. 2 Rayner Hoff, 1924 Harold Cazneaux. 3 Lord Casey, 1938 Gordon Furlee Brown.
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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.

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