Barry Humphries AO CBE (b. 1934) was well into his career as an actor and writer by the time this portrait was painted in the early 1970s. Although Humphries had long been based overseas, Dargie has commented that preparations for this portrait were made during a period when he was 'holed-up' in Melbourne. The genres of still life and portraiture are combined in this rather eerie work. Although it stands in considerable contrast to Dargie's more straightforward portraits, it is not unusual in his repertoire. He began sketching and painting from plaster models while at art school, and made paintings of busts, draped masks and sculptures from the 1930s through to the 1970s. Another portrait of Humphries depicts the sitter's head in a Chinese bowl with his hands lying alongside. The casts Dargie made of Humphries's head and hands are now in the Victorian State Library.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Marlene McCarthy 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Accession number: 2006.24
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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.
Scientists tend to conjure up images of men in white coats in labs but this is just one stereotype in an evolving history of how we have perceived scientists, and how their profession has been understood over the years.
Sir William Dargie, painter and eight times winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture, died in Melbourne on July 26, 2003, aged 91.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
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