Ursula Hoff AO OBE (1909–2005) was a curator, art historian and academic. A German Jew, educated in Hamburg, Munich and London, she was invited to Melbourne in 1939 to take up a position as secretary to the Women’s College at the University of Melbourne. From 1942 she worked at the National Gallery of Victoria, building up its outstanding collection of international and Australian prints and delivering public lectures on European art history; she was an assistant director from 1968 to 1973. Having lectured part-time in Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne from the late 1940s, she was senior associate in fine arts there from 1985. Her many publications include Art Appreciation (c.1944); Charles Conder: His Australian Years (1960) and The Art of Arthur Boyd (1986). In 1970, Hoff became a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
© Estate of Francis Reiss
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.
Anne Sanders and Christopher Chapman bring passionate characterisation to Express Yourself, the Portrait Gallery collection exhibition celebrating iconoclastic Australians.
This exhibition celebrates Australians whose unique life experiences symbolise social and cultural forces. Uncompromising individuality defines them. The portraits are drawn from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of contemporary photography and drawing.
