Skip to main content

What's on

Watch

The Gallery

Governance & Board

Circle of Friends

Learn

Access

Search the website

close close

What's on The Portraits The Gallery Learn Watch More O

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.

Search / laurence short

General information

Brooke Lockett, Heidi Martin, Karen Nanasca, Halaina Hills; New York, 2012 Lisa Tomasetti

About Face

Portrait treats and treatises

From punchy short pieces to longer form leanings, it's the place to come for a frequent fix of the world's most accessible art form.

Barry Humphries

About Face

#PortraitureComesHome

From punchy short pieces to longer form leanings, it's the place to come for a frequent fix of the world's most accessible art form.

Wild Man, 2005 by Ron Mueck

Vulnerability

More about In the flesh

London-based artist Ron Mueck creates an intense awareness of the different ways in which we experience vulnerability and a strong sense of tenderness is never far away.

Coveruncover, 2014

by Phoebe Carmody

General content

Finalist, MDPA 2014

Waylon Batt, 2016 by Nic Vevers, video: 2 minutes

Waylon Batt, 2016

General content

Finalist, DPA 2016

image not online

Upcoming

A short listing of future exhibitions planned for the National Portrait Gallery.

The Hunter

The Hunter

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, ideas about equality and liberty had begun to filter through to fashion.

The Cohen

The Cohen

Somewhat like the Lambert but more avuncular, more businesslike, less dandified or effete – the sort of style you’d expect to see on a bank manager in the 1920s.

The Kinghorne

The Kinghorne

aka substantial sideburns extending to the lower jaw, paired with a clean-shaven chin and upper lip – was a standard look for gents in pre-Victorian times.

Nicholas Hopwood

Nicholas Hopwood

It came at a time when, you know, we're all questioning our mortality, things are happening in the world.

Living Memory panel discussion

Panel discussion

First broadcast on Saturday 31 July

General content

A dynamic panel discussion that interrogates some of the themes revealed in Living Memory.

Shea Kirk

Shea Kirk

So this portrait here is part of a much larger series I've been shooting off and on for a number of years now.

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN

The 1780s to the 1840s

Mo and beard timeline

Eighteenth century men differed from those of the preceding centuries in their preference for beardlessness.

The Writer, Peter Goldsworthy

The Writer: Peter Goldsworthy, 2018

by Deidre But-Husaim

General content

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

Self portrait, 1930 Margaret Preston. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of the artist at the request of the Trustees 1930

The attractions of bohemia

It's Complicated

In the company of women

Davida Allen, 2016 by Mark Mohell

Davida Allen

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Going around a gallery with a child, we point to a painting of a dog and brightly ask ‘What’s that?’ If they don’t say ‘A dog’, we tell them that’s what it is. We don’t say it’s a shape inscribed by an artist that’s popularly understood to signify a dog. That’d only serve to foster a smarty-pants.

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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