Search / james cook

The last word

David Hansen’s tribute to his close friend, prince of words and former National Portrait Gallery director, the late Angus Trumble.

Take thy face hence

Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.

Sir Joseph Banks, Bt

Some prime ministers

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.

Primed

Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.

Little women

Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.

Rethinking foundational histories

A focus on Indigenous-European relationships underpins Facing New Worlds. By Kate Fullagar.

Christmas Island

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

Woburn Sheepshearing, 1811

Purchased 2018

Portrait of Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1770

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018

Captain Cook's Tablet at Cape Solander, Botany Bay, New South Wales, 1839

Purchased 2018

Queen Victoria, 1901

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Unbuttoning uniforms

Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.

Ben Chifley, n.d.

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The hand of Captain Cook

Take a close look at a portrait with a hidden message in its hands. For Year 7 – 9 students.

Old Blighty

Angus Trumble ponders the many faces of William Bligh.

Robert Oatley AO

The National Portrait Gallery mourns the loss of one our most generous benefactors, Robert Oatley AO.

Andrew Sayers AM FAHA

The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.

William Bligh

The life of William Bligh offers up a handful of the most remarkable episodes in the history of Britain’s eighteenth and early nineteenth-century maritime empire.

Welcome home, Captain Bligh

The National Portrait Gallery will, next Tuesday, unveil an exciting new acquisition of irrefutable importance to all Australians. Portrait of William Bligh, in master’s uniform c. 1776, attributed to John Webber, is one of the earliest portraits of the contentious, historical figure, and extends the Gallery’s remarkable collection of early colonial portraits.

Uncommon Australians

Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.

The medallion

In recent years I have become fascinated by the so-called Sydney Cove Medallion (1789), a work of art that bridges the 10,000-mile gap between the newly established penal settlement at Port Jackson and the beating heart of Enlightenment England.

Nlle. Holland Port Jackson: Sauvages des environs de Sydney: Nani, Taran, Abinghou, Broten, Timbere, 1825

Purchased 2015

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, c. 1774

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

'The portraits of Captain Cook'

Betty Churcher describes the creation of the portrait of Captain James Cook in the National Portrait Gallery.

The Bath Butterfly

The caricaturist and engraver James Gillray's biting satires about Sir Joseph Banks. 

History

How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be

Margel and Tarquin, Canberra, c. 1945

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Ross family in memory of Noel and Enid Eliot 2014

Imagination

Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.

Captain Cook

An exploration of the role of artists such as John Webber who, whilst a member of Cook’s crew over many voyages, created paintings and drawings of the situations and people the explorers encountered.

Portrait 31

This issue features the new National Portrait Gallery building, James Cook and John Banks, Cate Blanchett, Irina Baranova, Annette Kellerman, Shepard Fairey and more.

Henry Reynolds, 2012

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Cook, n.d.

Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Captain James Cook from the original in the Naval Gallery, Greenwich Hospital, c. 1837

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Captain James Cook, 1837

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

View of Owhyhee in the Sandwich Islands in the south Seas (The Death of Cook), 1787-1788

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2012

First encounters

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

In a good paddock

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

Portrait of Captain Edward Riou, 1801

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian endeavouring to escape in the boats, 1790

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

'Timbere sauvage de la nouvelle galles du sud en grand costume (Relache au Port Jackson)', 1822

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1814

Purchased 2011

Captain James Cook FRS, 1784

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Le Cap.ne Jacques Cook, Membre de la Société Royale des Londres, c. 1778

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Joseph Banks and Dr Solander, 1778

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

To the end of the earth

The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.

In the galleries

Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.

The fat of the land

Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’. 

Thrown together

Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.

Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster, c. 1780

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family, the Ian Potter Foundation and John Schaeffer AO 2009

Dr Solander, 1772

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

High & Bligh

Joanna Gilmour explores the 1790 portrait of William Bligh by Robert Dodd.

Cook in context

Robert Oatley's continuing benefaction has helped the National Portrait Gallery acquire works that add another layer to the story of Captain Cook.

Virtual lives

A brief introduction to the Weird, Wired World of Internet Portraiture.

Captain James King, engraving after Webber, 1784

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Captain James Cook, engraving after John Webber, 1784

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

The Royal Society medal in commemoration of Captain James Cook, 1784

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

The Death of Captain Cook, 1784

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Jasperware medallion of Captain James Cook, 1779

Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Pre-Raphaelite Profile

In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.

Portraits for Posterity

Drawn from some of the many donations made to the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Portraits for Posterity pays homage both to the remarkable (and varied) group of Australians who are portrayed in the portraits and the generosity of the many donors who have presented them to the Gallery.

Australian visit in Denmark

In April 2006 the National Portrait Gallery showcased Australian portraits at the Fredenksborg Castle in Denmark. 

Giving and getting

The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.

Canadian identities

An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.

To Look Within

This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present

Capturing Cook

In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.

In the National Interest

In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.

The Story So Far...

A reflection on the National Portrait Gallery's first four years.

The Quiet Australian

Robert Oatley talks about the repatriation of the John Webber portrait of Captain James Cook.

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN, 1782

Purchased by the Commonwealth Government with the generous assistance of Robert Oatley AO and John Schaeffer AO 2000

Mr Robert Oatley AO

Robert Oatley AO (1928–2016), businessman, was one of Australia’s most successful wine industry figures.