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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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About Face articles

Hell's mouth, 2019 Cam Neville

Facing the inferno

About Face article

Tara James speaks to Cam Neville about his portrait series, Firefighters.

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN

What is the point of Captain Cook?

About Face article

Our portrait of Captain James Cook is quite special to us.

The great South Sea caterpillar transformed into a Bath Butterfly (Sir Joseph Banks)

The Bath Butterfly

About Face article

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

Death mask of George Melville courtesy of National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Old Melbourne Gaol Collection

A colourful story from Sideshow Alley

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

About Face article

From infamous bushranger to oyster shop display, curator Jo Gilmour explores the life of George Melville.

Angus Trumble with Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks by Thomas Phillips

Banksia and grevillea

About Face article

Portraits can render honour to remarkable men and women, but there are other ways.

Ursula Hoff

Remembering Ursula

About Face article

I first knew Dr. Hoff when in 1986, long after retiring from the National Gallery of Victoria, she taught a graduate seminar on Rembrandt.

James Mccabe Executed Jany. 6th 1826

The consolations of religion

A bushranger meets his maker, 6 January 1826

About Face article

James McCabe provides proof that hanging wasn’t necessarily a fate reserved for the perpetrators of murder and other deeds of darkest hue.

Thomas Woolner

Missing Persons

Thomas Woolner in Australia

About Face article

Desperately seeking Woolner medallions

Epstein/Einstein? I can never remember!

The Question of Value

About Face article

We have nothing to do with pricetags here.

Death mask of Ned Kelly, 1880

When should children be introduced to the concepts of death?

About Face article

A couple of weeks ago in anticipation of the Deathly Hallows movie adaptation, I was entertaining myself by looking at Harry Potter websites.

Geo Face Distributor

Geo Face distributor

Portrait, art, science, or blob?

About Face article

As you meander up the smooth speckled path to the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) polished concrete building, there is a large, almost luminous, bright tangerine orange sculpture marking the entrance.

The Gingerbread National Portrait Gallery by Sam Bowker, 2010 The background image is a portrait stencil of Andrew Sayers by E.L.K.

The Gingerbread Portrait Gallery

About Face article

Our inaugural Director, Andrew Sayers, led the National Portrait Gallery from a three-room institution in the former library of the Old Parliament House in 1998 through to our glossy and spacious new building in 2010.

Geo Face Distributor

The Ever Changing Face of the National Portrait Gallery

About Face article

At the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery there stands a sculpture that attracts a great deal of interest from visitors as they ask this very question.

Portrait of Ern Malley by Sidney Nolan (1973) Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Gift of Sidney and Cynthia Nolan, 1974

Can a portrait exist when a person did not?

About Face article

All the portraits in the NPG have a real human being hidden behind them.

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN

Robert Oatley AO

About Face article

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

Louise, daughter of the Hon. L. L. Smith by Tom Roberts, 1888

An Australian in Paris

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This week it is impossible not to contemplate the ways in which France has touched many Australian lives.

© National Portrait Gallery 2023
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

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.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency