The Hon. John Howard OM AC (b. 1939) was Prime Minister of Australia from early 1996 to late 2007. A lawyer by profession, he was elected as the Federal Member for Bennelong in 1974, and returned to the Parliament at every ensuing Federal election until the Labor landslide of late 2007, when he became the second Australian Prime Minister - after Stanley Bruce - to lose his own seat in a general election. Howard served over five years as Treasurer in the Fraser government, and spent two periods as Leader of the Opposition. He remained in office for over 11 years, a record second only to Robert Menzies’s. Conceding defeat to Kevin Rudd in 2007, Mr Howard described his wife - who was the first Chief Patron of the National Portrait Gallery, from 1999 to 2007 - as the ‘love of his life’ and his ‘rock’. The couple is shown here in the garden of Kirribilli House in Sydney.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by the Founding Patron, L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2000
© Josonia Palaitis/Copyright Agency, 2021
Josonia Palaitis (age 51 in 2000)
Hon. John Howard AC (age 61 in 2000)
Janette Howard (age 56 in 2000)
The Gordon Darling Foundation (36 portraits supported)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
The exhibition will include works of art from the NPG Canberra's permanent collection with some inward loans and aims to highlight the achievements of notable Australians.
