Ticketed entry is in place to safely manage your visit so please book ahead. Need to cancel or rejig? Email bookings@npg.gov.au
The Hon. Sir Henry Parkes gcmg (1815–1896) was five times premier of New South Wales between 1872 and 1891, and a consistent advocate for Federation, or union of the colonies. The inscription on this bust quotes from a speech Parkes made in his seventies (a decade of his life in which he was twice remarried – to much younger women – and fathered a child). It was toward the end of his political career, in October 1889, that he gave his famous oration at Tenterfield, northern New South Wales, calling for a federal convention. The Federal Convention came to pass in Melbourne in February 1890. There Parkes responded to a toast to ‘A United Australia’, by asserting that ‘the crimson thread of kinship runs through us all’.
Nelson Illingworth trained in sculpture in England and worked at the Royal Doulton potteries for nine years before moving to Australia. In the 1890s he set up the Denbrae Fine Art Pottery in Sydney to make a range of flowerpots, fernpots and statuettes. Amongst his many portrait heads, busts and statuettes are a bust and a life-or-death mask of Henry Lawson, and a life-sized statue of Parkes which was praised as ‘really charming … depicting the late statesman in a very faithful pose . . . The posture chosen gives life to the figure, which is excellent in every particular.’
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2012
Accession number: 2012.2
Currently on display: Gallery Seven (Ian Potter Gallery)
Copyright image request form
Request a digital copy of an image for publication
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.
Andrew Sayers asks whether a portrait can truly be the examination of a life.
Explore portraiture and come face to face with Australian identity, history, culture, creativity and diversity.
Timed ticketing, location, accessibility and amenities