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Terrace Room Two

The eastern side of the Terrace Room is perfect for a breakfast or lunch, workshop or planning day.

Terrace Room One

The western side of the Terrace Room is perfect for a breakfast or lunch, a workshop or planning day.

Terrace Room

The Terrace Room opens onto a north facing, outdoor heated terrace with lovely views.

The Dissecting Room

Though initially developed by physicians, phrenology was taken up by certain non-medical practitioners who applied the theory to social questions such as education and criminal reform. 

An international troupe of two

Office romance

Blue Wolf, 2014

Finalist, MDPA 2014

Conference or seminar

We can tailor our spaces to suit your conference, seminar or forum.

Our only concern is the void, 2013

Winner, MDPA 2013

Renata Pari-Lewis and Jess Hill

It's really strange to see myself portrayed like that, because when you have those private moments it's only you having that private moment to yourself.

Lunch or dinner

Along with a meal in an elegant space, your guests may also enjoy portraits of notable Australians.

Luther Cora

Yeah, so it's my daughter. So, I shot this last year, I think on the Gold Coast, we had a little lockdown period, couple of lockdown period.

Jay Hynes

Dave has a brother Gavin and they live in the 'burbs and they went to school with a friend of mine.

Favourite portraits

National Portrait Gallery staff introduce their favourite portraits from the exhibition.

The Lawson

It’s curious that one of the writers most associated with the toughness of Australian bush life was himself not an exponent of the matted, rugged bushman sort of beard.

Breakfast

Begin your day in an elegant, convivial, award-winning building.

Janet Tavener

Mikala is the eldest of my three daughters. I have photographed her on many an occasion. Needless to say we are both extremely at home with the practice.

The Hubert

A facial hair style suggesting something of the boys’-own type of chap who seems to have had much currency in the early years of the twentieth century.

The Parkes

It wasn’t uncommon for the pro-beard fraternity of the mid nineteenth century to cite beards as a sign of wisdom on the grounds that Socrates and other ancient philosophers had worn them.

Elliot Brown

This portrait is called Jaye and it's a photo of my friend. She's a member of the Multicultural Society in Geraldton.

Ahmad Sabra

We were in Gaza shooting a documentary and we had heard about the orphanages and wanted to visit and document some of the children who had lost parents during the wars in Gaza.

Dream date delivers destiny

The perfect match

Cocktail reception

We can provide a stunning, sophisticated space for your cocktail reception.

The 1890s to the 1940s

Although the tough, weathered, hard-drinking bushmen of the kind mythologised by writers like Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson are popularly associated with the character of late nineteenth century Australia, it was also a time when alternative ideas about identity began to come into play.

Maritime disaster leaves poignant picture

Absence rends the heart asunder

In the most correct style

Desirable outcomes, undesirable origins

Street fare

The late Georgian and early Victorian working classes often bought their food in ale-houses, chop-houses and ‘penny pie shops’, or purchased their meals day after day in the streets.

Simon Harsent

I like to think I'm an artist who uses photography as my medium, but I work commercially as a photographer and it's my full time occupation so I guess that defines me as a photographer or maybe a commercial artist?

Wedding

Allow us to paint the possibilities of your wedding reception.

Meet the Artist

In its uniting of artist and sitter, the self-portrait is an intriguing facet of portraiture. The self-reflection is a format that appears to grant the viewer the assurance of revelation and intimate access to the artist’s psyche.

The Waxworks

Waxworks were among the various types of entertainment venue to emerge in Australian cities in the mid-nineteenth century. 

Relaxed mornings

Access support for a visiting the Gallery before the general 10:00am opening time.

Supporters

New partnership with Stripy Sock

We have a new partnership with Canberra-based leading mobile application development consultancy, Stripy Sock.

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2014

Press releases for media.

Visiting with a school group

Access support for students.

Visiting the National Portrait Gallery

Access support for a general visit to the Gallery.

Katherine Bennett

The lady in the centre of this photograph is my partner's Granny. So we are almost directly related, and here, as with all photographic work. I am in a state of exchange though I think only directly, with one of the women!

2021 Annual Appeal

In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.

Access

The National Portrait Gallery welcomes everyone. We have a variety of inclusive programs.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.

Equation of a life – a portrait of Derek Denton

The National Portrait Gallery, has welcomed the newest portrait commission of Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC by Evert Ploeg.

The Writer: Peter Goldsworthy, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AO and Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018.

John McRae

An interview with the photographer.

Risk Assessment for groups of students

Find out about our environment, security checks, potential hazards and more.

Fred Hilmer, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018

Noel McKenna

It’s a matter beyond dispute that in the entire history of Australian art, it’s Noel McKenna who’s painted the liveliest rendition of the head of a Chihuahua.

Announcing Shakespeare to Winehouse

More than eighty treasures from the National Portrait Gallery London will travel to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from March 2022.

Rugby great a fine addition to Portrait Gallery Collection

A portrait of Australian rugby great, Dr Mark Loane AM MBBS FRANZO FRACS, is the latest addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. The work is the final in a series of three commissioned portraits of Australian rugby luminaries funded by Gallery benefactor, Mr Patrick Corrigan AM.

Annual Appeal

Jose Legaspi

Jose Legaspi was born in 1959 in Manila. He achieved degrees in zoology and biology before turning to fine arts in the mid-1980s.

Exhibition opening speech

Leo Schofield introduces the exhibition, Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores.

A non-material and non-physical portrait

Inner Worlds features the recently commissioned portrait of world-renowned philosopher of consciousness David Chalmers by Melbourne-based artist Nick Mourtzakis.

Pushpamala N

Pushpamala N. was born in 1956 in Bangalore. Her early training was in sculpture, but as her practice progressed she brought an early enthusiasm for narrative figuration into her photographic work.

The more things change...

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.

Lucy Culliton

Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Some women you may not know

‘Everybody’s lives are built by so many influences, and for me, it is writers, artists and activists who have influenced how I think about the world.’

Graeme Drendel

I like talking about Drendel’s pictures as if they expressed dreams of my own.

Some prime ministers

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

Robyn Sweaney

Robyn's parents had two terriers, Wuff and Snuff. In spite of Snuff’s ominous name and a couple of close shaves – once, he jumped out of a moving car, and another time, on a long road trip, he was accidentally left behind at a petrol station – he outlived Wuff.

The art of Inner Worlds

Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.

Less than six degrees of separation

Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.

Anna Culliton

Anna Culliton never had a colouring-in book when she was little. Her parents –Tony, a filmmaker, and Stephanie, a painter – wouldn’t let her have one. Instead, they insisted on her drawing her own pictures to colour-in. 

History

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

Inner Worlds and psychoanalysis

Inner Worlds evokes a broad view of psychology as a discipline. However, the specific interests of the practitioners whose portraits are included in the exhibition incorporate specialist areas including psychoanalysis.

Portrait Donors

Everybody, look serious

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.

Faces of war

Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.