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Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards AO (1930-2023) made a remarkable contribution to the cultural sector in Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Helen Edwards

Helen Edwards, a member of Portrait Artists Australia, has been a finalist in the Black Swan Prize four times, the Shirley Hannan Portrait Prize in Bega once and has been selected for the Salon des Refusés of the Archibald twice.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Edwards

Henry (Harry) Edwards (1827–1891), actor and entomologist, arrived in Melbourne in 1853 after a short-lived attempt at studying for a career in law.

1 portrait in the collection

Ross Edwards

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Ross Edwards (b. 1943), composer, became determined upon a life of composition as a child.

1 portrait in the collection

Helen Edwards

In their own words

Recorded 2013

Ross Edwards, 2013

Bridget Elliot

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
To mark the 70th birthday of composer Ross Edwards (23 December 2013)

McLean Edwards, 2006

by Gary Grealy

Image

Robert Edwards, 2009

John Elliott

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Commissioned with funds provided by Art Exhibitions Australia 2009

Henry Edwards, c. 1874

Bradley and Rulofson

Portrait, albumen photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

The Seekers reunite 50 years on, 2011

Helen Edwards

Portrait, synthetic polymer on linen

Gift of Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

MacKenzie family silhouette, 1846

Samuel Metford

Portrait, brush and ink, pen and ink, stencil cut-out with watercolour highlights on paper

Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney, 1836

Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Mary, Botany Bay tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Mickie, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Toby, Broken Bay tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Tommy, Broken Bay tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Cullabaa, native of Lake George, Five Islands tribe

Cullabaa, native of Lake George, Five Islands tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Bill Worrall, Five Islands tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Jemmy, Newcastle tribe, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Roderick Shaw

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

Roderick Shaw (1915-1992) is perhaps best known for his worker paintings of the social realist school, such as Cable Layers (in the Art Gallery of NSW).

2 portraits in the collection

Heads of the People

Previous exhibition, 2000

For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history

Boardman, Lake Macquarie tribe, 1836

Portrait, lithographic print on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Untitled

by Isabelle De Kleine

Residency prize winner, MDPA 2015

Esther Erlich

Esther Erlich (b. 1955), a Melbourne-based painter, has been exhibiting since the early 1980s, often with the Libby Edwards Galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and the Barry Newton Gallery in Adelaide.

3 portraits in the collection

Pictorial profiles of hearth and home

Nearest & Dearest

Keep it in the family

Mrs Grey, c. 1845

Theresa Walker

Portrait, cast wax

Purchased 1999

Bridget Elliot

Bridget Elliot (b. 1958), photographer, is acknowledged for her significant portraits of Australian composers and musical performers.

1 portrait in the collection

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior of N.S.W.

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior of N.S.W., 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

The Seekers

In their own words

Recorded 2013

Vlase Zanalis

Palassis (Vlase, Vlazio or Vlasio) Zanalis (1902–1973) arrived in Western Australia as a twelve-year-old, accompanied by an uncle, from the Greek island of Kastellorizo in 1914.

1 portrait in the collection

Robert Klippel AO

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Robert Klippel AO (1920–2001) is considered by some to be the most significant sculptor Australia has yet produced.

5 portraits in the collection

Evonne Goolagong, 1973

Ern McQuillan OAM

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004

Punch, wife of Cullabaa, Broken Bay tribe

Punch, wife of Cullabaa, Broken Bay tribe, 1836

Previous exhibition, 2000

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Monochromatic Self-Portrait, 2000 by Genevieve Preston

Headspace 1

Headspace showcases portrait art produced by secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 in Government, Catholic and Independent schools in Canberra and its surrounding regions extending to Wollongong, Deniliquin, Leeton, Crookwell, Bombala, Narooma and Albury

Joe and Brenda, 1990 (printed 2013)

Michael Riley

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Purchased 2013

Colin Madigan and Robert Hughes, Canberra

Colin Madigan and Robert Hughes, Canberra, 1982 (printed 2000)

David Moore

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001

Gooseberry, widow of King Bungaree, 1836

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Evonne Goolagong (Cawley) AC MBE

Evonne Goolagong Cawley AC MBE (b. 1951), Wiradjuri tennis champion, was the number one women's tennis player in the world in 1971 and 1976.

3 portraits in the collection

Donors

$10,000 - $49,999

Honour board

Mal Meninga, 2018

by Peter Hudson

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018

All there in black and white

The National Portrait Gallery acquired a beguiling silhouette group portrait by Samuel Metford, an English artist who spent periods of his working life in America.

Lloyd Rees at the Rock in 1975, 1984

Roderick Shaw

Portrait, oil and oil pastel on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Self portrait, 1976 (printed 2005)

David Malin

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Mal Meninga, 2018

Peter Hudson

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018

Portraits for Posterity

Previous exhibition, 2006

Drawn from some of the many donations made to the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Portraits for Posterity pays homage both to the remarkable (and varied) group of Australians who are portrayed in the portraits and the generosity of the many donors who have presented them to the Gallery.

Sue Ford

Portrait, watercolour, ink and gouache on paper

Sue Ford (née Winslow, 1943–2009), photographer, filmmaker and photo-media artist, grew up in the beachside suburbs of Melbourne and became interested in photography while on holiday in Europe at age 17.

2 portraits in the collection

Ellyse Perry, 2016

Fiona McMonagle

Purchased 2017

Form and reality

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2008

A photographic portrait by Kerry Dundas captures the contemplative mind of visionary painter Godfrey Miller.

2021 Annual Appeal

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.

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa

Husbands and Wives

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Previous exhibition, 2010

'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.

L. Gordon Darling AC CMG

31 August 2015

Archived media releases 2015

The Chairman, Board, Director and all the Staff of the National Portrait Gallery mourn the loss of our Founding Patron, who died peacefully in Melbourne this morning. He was 94.

Portrait of a patron

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.

Rupert Bunny

Significant Australian Women 1913–2013

Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864–1947) was one of the most celebrated Australian expatriate artists of his generation, achieving a degree of success in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s that was unmatched by his peers.

3 portraits in the collection

First Ladies

Previous exhibition, 2013

First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.

Australian of the Year

Inspiring a Nation

Previous exhibition, 2010

The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Previous exhibition, 2015

This exhibition showcases portraits acquired through the generosity of the National Portrait Gallery’s Founding Patrons, L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC.

William Charles Wentworth -The Australian Patriot

The Wentworths – Hidden in Plain Sight

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2015

Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.

Annual Appeal

Listed by year

Honour board

Giving and getting

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.

Face of South Sudan, 2012 by Melanie Faith Dove

NPPP 2013 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2013 Prize.

Surface tension

Joanna Gilmour on the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2013.

Of jumpers and river gums, red

Magazine article by Diana O'Neil, 2016

Diana O’Neil on Noel Counihan’s vivid 1971 portrait of Alan Marshall.

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Honour board

Adam’s Prize Apples

Magazine article by Pamela Gerrish Nunn, 2016

Pamela Gerrish Nunn explores New Zealand’s premium award for portraiture.

Doodles of the Diva

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Three tiny sketches of Dame Nellie Melba in the NPG collection were created by the artist who was to go on to paint the most imposing representation of the singer: Rupert Bunny.

Splendid, many-splendoured

Magazine article by Sandra Bruce, 2021

Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.

History

About us

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

20/20 launch speech

About Face article

Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.

Mugshots

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling