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Black and white history

English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.

Fugue in Yellow

Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.

The art of conciliation

Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.

Portrait 32

This issue features Vanity Fair, Nancy Bird Walton, William Barak, Sidney Kidman, Benjamin Duterrau's portraits of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania, and more.

Portrait 67

William Yang on his autobiographical self portraits, David Parker's 1970s and 80s Melbourne music photographs, seven-time NPPP finalist Chris Budgeon, and Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis.

Us being ourselves

Penelope Grist talks to photographer Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis about capturing moments, telling stories and keeping Culture strong.

The last word

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

Where the wild things are

Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.

Tracks in the sand

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses Quentin Jones's photograph of Australian author Tim Winton.

More than human

Gillian Raymond investigates the history of humanoid robots and asks, is this the future of portraiture?

Written in Water

Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.

Duty bound

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.

Go Figure!

Claire Roberts interviews Swiss art collector Uli Sigg.

Little treasures

The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.

Observation point

The Australian painter Ben Quilty discusses his approach to portraiture.

The first nurse

Tamsin Hong recounts the tale of Marion Smith, the only known Australian Indigenous servicewoman of World War One.

Why do painted portraits still matter?

Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.

The artist, the scholar and the gentleman

Kwon Hyeeun introduces Korean portraits of Kang Sehwang, and five generations of the Kang family.

Unpacked

Louise Cummins reveals the rich symbolism in Michael Peck’s photorealistic portrait of AFL legend and MND ambassador Neale Daniher.

Unpacked

Rebecca Ray reflects on Robert Fielding’s Mayatjara series, honouring songlines and intergenerational knowedge.

Pin-ups

Christopher Chapman describes the art and life of Australian artist Richard Larter.

Insightful

Henri-Cartier-Bresson invented the grammar for photographing life in the 20th century.

The aviatrix

Joanna Gilmour explores the extraordinary life of Australian female aviator Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE

Star signs

Barry York charts the course from childhood request to autographed celebrity portrait anthology.

Spikes: then and now

As part of its ongoing program of commissions of portraits of prominent Australians, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a portrait of Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson by South Australian artist Avril Thomas.

In the thick of it

Projecting the splendour of the empire, and the resolve of its subjects, the bust of William Birdwood keeps a stiff upper lip in the National Portrait Gallery.

Suave

Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.

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.

Of human clay

The first collaborative commission has arrived. It's a self portrait, it's ceramic and it's from Hermannsburg.

One and all

The current exhibition of portraits at the National Gallery of Ireland Print Gallery investigates just how paper-thin ideas of likeness are.

The existential lens

Stephen Zagala discusses Richard Avedon’s work from an Australian perspective.

Swimming every day

National Photographic Portrait Prize judge Christopher Chapman connects this year’s entries to iconic contemporary american photographers.

Of beef in burgundy

Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.

A guy from Paris

Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.

City boys

Christopher Chapman immerses himself in Larry Clark’s field of vision.

Space in between

Rebecca Ray goes backstage with Bangarra’s Head of Design and photographer Jacob Nash.

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.

The Avedon effect

Dr Christopher Chapman explores how we can understand Richard Avedon's photographs.  

Real close

Peter Ciemitis breached regulations when creating the portrait of the polymath environmental scientist George Seddon.

Vanity fair

Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.

Man of the year

Exhibition curator Christine Clark introduces the work by Indonesian artist Agus Suwage created for Beyond the self: Contemporary portraiture from Asia.

Splendid, many-splendoured

Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.

Two pair

Jewelled nights

Anne Sanders celebrates the cinematic union of two pioneering australian women.

Political profiles

Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.

The Philosophy of Teapots and Ducks

Cartoonist Michael Leunig's insights into the human condition and current affairs have become famous Australia-wide.

The Saint and the merchant

Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.

International issue

Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008

Expect the unexpected

Joanna Gilmour revels in accidental artist Charles Rodius’ nineteenth century renderings of Indigenous peoples.

Two painters

Chris Chapman explains how Matthys Gerber bridges the gap between abstraction and portraiture.

Portraits and other stories

As the National Portrait Gallery opens its exhibition of portrait and figurative work by veteran photographer Sam Haskins, the artist reflects on the highlights of his fifty-year career so far.

Public hanging

As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.

Fits of delicacy and despair

Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.

Augustus serendipitous

The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825. 

Love my way

Inga Walton delves into the bohemian group of artists and writers who used each other as muses and transformed British culture.

Agnes enigma

Karen Quinlan considers the case of Agnes Goodsir, whose low profile in Australia belies her overseas acclaim.

South-bound and down

Joanna Gilmour recounts the story of ill-fated sea voyages in the early stages of the Antipodean colony.

Cultural kaleidoscope

The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.

The Lawrence lustre

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Portrait of the Gallery

A design diary retrospective.

Hump days

Jessica Bolton navigates the parallel tracks documenting Robyn Davidson’s astonishing journey.

Finding Mrs Frisby

Robyn Sweaney's quiet Violet obsession.

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.

Diamond Doll

Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.

Dupain detective

Johanna McMahon revels in history and mystery in pursuit of a suite of unknown portrait subjects.

Missionary positions

Stella Ramage on Father McHardy’s Bougainville portraiture.

Kiwi magpie

Penelope Grist finds inspiration in pioneering New Zealand artist, Frances Hodgkins.

Unknown drawer

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

Of ice and men

Frank Hurley's celebrated images document the heroism and minutiae of Australian exploration in Antarctica.

Petal to the mettle

Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.

Eating the seasons

Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.

Pen power

Politics and personae in the portraiture of TextaQueen by Jane Raffan.

Illuminating history

Joanna Gilmour reflects on 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.

The importance of being bearded

Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.

High & Bligh

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

Risky business

John Zubrzycki lauds the characters of the Australian escapology trade.

Friends and Acquaintances

Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.

Getting a head

Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.

Sea legged frogs

Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.

The Dissecting Room

Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture. 

Flash mob

Sarah Engledow trains her exacting lens on the nine photographs from 20/20.

Through blue eyes

Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.

Listomania

Sarah Engledow describes the fall-out once Brett Whiteley stuck Patrick White’s list of his loves and hates onto his great portrait of the writer.

A feast of friends

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

Queen of cartes

Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.

A real Pratt

The death of a gentlewoman is shrouded in mystery, a well-liked governor finds love after sorrow, and two upright men become entangled in the historical record.

The shipwright's arms

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.

Prima facie

Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.

All the way with K of K

Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.