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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

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Ned Kelly death mask

Getting a head

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2015

Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist

Sibly irresistible

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2019

Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.

Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra)

Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra)

Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra)

Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra), c. 1862

an unknown artist after Georg Emil Hansen

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

image not online

Set of 129 Royal Christmas Cards and three miscellaneous items, 1951-2001

an unknown artist

Portrait, offset print (tipped in), letter press (greeting), pen and ink (signature), embossed (royal emblem) on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patricia Tryon Macdonald 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Phrenology video: 3 minutes 25 seconds

Ned Kelly and death masks

'Judge a person by their cover'

Alexandra Roginski explains the history behind the pseudo-science of phrenology.

Alexandra Schepisi, 2011 by Anita Beaney

Alexandra Schepisi, 2011

by Anita Beaney

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II)

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II)

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II)

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II), 1942-1943

Charles Wheeler

Portrait, coloured chalk on artist board

Purchased 2019

Lillie Langtry

Lovely Lillie and Dirty Bertie

Royal romps: illicit liaisons

Phrenology video: 3 minutes 25 seconds

Judge a person by their cover

Death masks and phrenology

General content

Alexandra Roginski explains the history behind the pseudo-science of phrenology, popular in the nineteenth century.

Portrait 61

Max Dupain's unknown portrait subjects, phrenologist Madame Sibly, Indigenous-European relationships, Thomas Gainsborough and more.

Losing Faith, 2004 by Alexandra Cody

Headspace 5

Previous exhibition, 2004

Crystal Gazing: Headspace V, the fifth in the National Portrait Gallery's program of secondary student portrait exhibitions, invites students from Canberra and the surrounding regions to explore the possibilities of portraiture

James Oswald Fairfax

James Fairfax AO

James Oswald Fairfax AC (1933-2017) was the eldest son of Sir Warwick Fairfax.

1 portrait in the collection

Rolf de Heer, Adelaide, SA

Rolf de Heer

Rolf de Heer (b. 1951) was born in Heemskerk, Holland, and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959.

1 portrait in the collection

Rolf de Heer, Adelaide, SA

Rolf de Heer, Adelaide, SA

Rolf de Heer, Adelaide, SA

Rolf de Heer, Adelaide, SA, 2004

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Dr John Yu

John Yu AC

Dr John Yu (b.1934), retired paediatrician and hospital administrator, was born in Nanking, China and moved to Australia with his parents when he was three years old.

3 portraits in the collection

image not online

John Longstaff

Sir John Longstaff, born in Clunes, Victoria, studied at the NGV school from 1883 to 1887 and thenceforth at Corman's in Paris.

1 portrait in the collection

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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