© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
An evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens, 1857
Maria Brownrigg
Portrait, watercolour and collage on paper
Purchased 2017
Maria Caroline Brownrigg
About Face article
At first glance, this small watercolour group portrait of her two sons and four daughters by Maria Caroline Brownrigg (d. 1880) may seem prosaic, even hesitant
Home is where the heart is
Nearest & Dearest
For richer, for poorer
Stephen Murray-Smith
Biography
Stephen Murray-Smith (1922-1988), writer and editor, was educated at Geelong Grammar and the University of Melbourne before serving in New Guinea during World War 2.
1 portrait in the collection
Stephen Murray-Smith, 1980
Fred Williams
Portrait, oil on canvas
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lyn Williams AM 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Portrait of mother (after Mirka), 2008
by Nat Thomas & Concettina Inserra
Image
Mary Neville, Lady Dacre and Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre
Hans Eworth
Image
Transition
More about In the flesh
We fix adolescence as the time of inner turmoil, private worlds and secret refuges, doubt and imagination, protest and liberation. The human mind and body never really leaves this state of transition.
Michele Aboud
Biography
Michele Aboud, commercial, fashion and portrait photographer, is a graduate of the Photographic College of London and UCLA.
1 portrait in the collection
Presence and absence
Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018
The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.
Marc Besen AC
Biography
Marcus (Marc) Besen AC (1923–2023), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with his wife Eva Besen AO.
1 portrait in the collection
Glossy 2
Faces, Magazines, Now
Previous exhibition, 2005
Following the success of Glossy: Faces, Magazines, Now in 1999 the National Portrait Gallery again highlights the huge array of contemporary portraiture in the pages of magazines.
Why do painted portraits still matter?
Magazine article by Sandy Nairne, 2006
Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009
Previous exhibition, 2009
In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.
I'm not there
Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2008
Christopher Chapman looks at some contemporary portraits that explore the construction of identity. 
The Lawrence lustre
Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2019
Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.