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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.

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A D Hope and his circle

Previous exhibition
from Monday 16 July until Sunday 16 September 2007
Alec Hope
Alec Hope, c. 1985 (printed 2007) David Brooks. © David Brooks

To celebrate the centenary of the birth of poet Alec Derwent Hope AC OBE (1907-2000), the National Portrait Gallery exhibited a selection from its many portraits of Australian poets and authors.

One of the very few internationally-recognised Australian poets, Hope was born in Cooma, NSW, and educated at Sydney and Oxford Universities. He taught at Sydney Teachers’ College and Melbourne University before becoming inaugural Professor of English at the Australian National University in 1951. He held this post until 1968, after which he remained for many years as Emeritus Professor, occupying an office in the building that bears his name, writing his verse and vigorous literary criticism.

The exhibition coincided with Wandering Islands, a major literary conference at the Humanities Research Centre at the ANU, taking its name from Hope’s stunning first verse collection of 1955. The conference was convened by poet and academic Professor David Brooks, a friend and editor of Hope’s, who took many evocative photographs of the poet and his Canberra circle in the 1970s and 1980s. 

11 portraits

1 Professor A D Hope, Canberra, 1963 (printed 2000) David Moore. © Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore http://davidmoorephotography.com.au/. 2 Christina Stead, 1981 Jacqueline Mitelman. © Jacqueline Mitelman. 3 Patrick White, Castle Hill, Sydney, 1963 (printed 2000) David Moore. © Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore http://davidmoorephotography.com.au/. 4 Rosemary Dobson, 1981 Max Dupain OBE. © Max Dupain/Copyright Agency, 2022. 5 Norman Lindsay, 1936 Max Dupain OBE. 6 Dame Mary Gilmore, 1961 Max Dupain OBE. © Max Dupain/Copyright Agency, 2023.

Related people

A. D. Hope OBE

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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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