Search / andrew thomas

Wiradjuri artist Brook Andrew (b. 1970) studied art at the University of Western Sydney and the University of New South Wales.

2 portraits in the collection

Andrew Daly

Andrew Daly (b. 1964) is a Perth-based artist who completed studies in fine art at Curtin University.

4 portraits in the collection

Andrew Steiner OAM

Previous exhibition, 2017

Holocaust survivor, sculptor and human rights advocate Andrew Steiner OAM (b.

1 portrait in the collection

Collection in focus: Brook Andrew

Experience the artistic clout of Brook Andrew’s portraits of Marcia Langton AM and Anthony Mundine.

Andrew Gaze AM

Andrew Gaze (b. 1965), basketballer and coach, was born into a prominent basketballing family.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Maccoll

Andrew Maccoll (b. 1978) is a photographer and creative director. Born into an artistic family (his father is a press photographer and his mother a documentary producer) he worked as a darkroom printing assistant while studying for his degree in Visual Arts in Photography at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.

3 portraits in the collection

Andrew Quilty

Andrew Quilty left school after completing Year 10 in 1999, and went to study photography at TAFE, graduating in 2004.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Bonneau

Tasmanian-born Andrew Bonneau (b. 1981) lives and works in Cairns, Queensland.

2 portraits in the collection

Andrew Sibley

Andrew Sibley (1933–2015), painter and teacher, is known for his figurative paintings, landscapes and abstract works.

20 portraits in the collection

Andrew Mezei

Andrew Mezei (b. 1963), artist, was born to Hungarian refugee parents in Melbourne and grew up in their leather-goods workshop, observing their adherence to a tradition of fine European craftsmanship.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Charlton

Andrew 'Boy' Charlton (1907-1975) was a keen surfer throughout his youth.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew, 2013

by Andrew M Lance

Andrew Sayers AM

Portrait, watercolour, coloured pencil, crayon, fibre-tipped pen and gouache on paper

Andrew Sayers AM (1957–2015) was inaugural Director of the National Portrait Gallery.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Hay of Chapman Hay,

Joe Greenberg

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001

Brook Andrew

Recorded 2011

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Self portrait, 1990

Portrait, brush and ink on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Self portrait, 1984-1985

Magazine article by Andrew Mayo, 2016

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Daniel Johns, Silverchair Melbourne 2007 by Martin Philbey

Rock art

Andrew Mayo talks to three of Australia’s most prominent and prolific music photographers — Martin Philbey, Kane Hibberd and Daniel Boud — about the challenges and inspiration behind their craft.

Something old, something new

Magazine article by Andrew Mayo, 2017

Andrew Mayo considers the changing face of modern wedding photography through the eyes of two of its finest exponents, Dan O’Day and Kelly Tunney.

Fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon, Iceland, 2015 Josh Hutchins

Fisheye

Magazine article by Andrew Mayo, 2020

Andrew Mayo explores the portrait piscatorial, with help from two of its most creative practitioners.

The Shuttle

Andrew Rovenko

Andrew Mitchell Ramsay

Portrait, papercut silhouette drawing

Andrew Mitchell Ramsay (1809-1869), clergyman, was Melbourne's first Presbyterian minister.

1 portrait in the collection

Andrew Leon, 2017

Pamela See

Purchased 2019

Self Portrait with sun damage, 2014 by Andrew Sayers.

At easel

Magazine article by Tim Bonyhady, 2016

Tim Bonyhady recalls his experience as sitter for his close friend and former National Portrait Gallery Director, the late Andrew Sayers.

Kym Bonython

'The man and his cap'

Former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers, describes John Brack's portrait of Kym Bonython.

Gil Jamieson, 1980

Portrait, brush and ink on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gil Jamieson, 1981

Portrait, brush and ink, gouache, watercolour and pastel on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Joy Warren, 1997

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Andrew Mezei

'From Earth to Sky'

Artist Andrew Mezei talks about his art practice and the process behind his portrait of Professor Penny Sackett.

Penny Sackett and Andrew Mezei

From Earth to Sky

Portrait, inkjet print from 35mm film on paper

Professor Penny Sackett and artist Andrew Mezei describe the process behind making the portrait.

Andrew Steiner, 2020 (printed 2021)

Alex Frayne

Gift of the artist 2021

Andrew Gaze, 2018

George Fetting

Commissioned with funds provided by Trent Birkett 2018

Andrew Sibley, painter, Sydney, 1960

David Potts

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Andrew Southall, 1992

Portrait, drypoint on wove paper

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Andrew Sayers, 2012

Mark Mohell

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Andrew Southall, 1995

Portrait, drypoint on wove paper

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Andrew B Charlton, 1930s

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph with orginal authographed sheet on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Andrew Ettingshausen, 1996

Montalbetti + Campbell

Portrait, direct positive colour photograph

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artists 2003

The Chess Player, 2011

by Andrew Campbell

Farmer, fisher, scholar and scribe, 2019

Andrew Baker

Judy Cassab, 1991

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Fred Williams, 1980

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Betty Cuthbert, 2002

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Preparatory study for Betty Cuthbert, 2002

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Preparatory study for Betty Cuthbert, 2002

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Preparatory study for Betty Cuthbert, 2002

Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Allan McCulloch, 1980

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gordon Shepherdson, 1980

Portrait, brush and ink on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Study for portrait of Nicholas Paspaley Jnr

Study for portrait of Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Andrew Bonneau

Portrait, pencil and white pastel on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Mirka Mora, 1983

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Mick Fanning at Snapper Rocks, 2010

Andrew Maccoll

Purchased 2011

Professor Penny Sackett, astronomer and physicist

Professor Penny Sackett, astronomer and physicist, 2011

Andrew Mezei

Portrait, oil on linen

Purchased 2012

Sigrid Thornton, 2000

Purchased 2010

Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, 1971

Portrait, brush and ink, gouache on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, 1971

Portrait, brush and ink, gouache and watercolour on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Beach scene

Magazine article by Andrew Maccoll, 2012

Photographer Andrew Maccoll tells the story behind his portrait of dual world champion pro surfer Mick Fanning.

Eric Bana, 2006 (printed 2012)

Andrew Maccoll

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2012

Fred Williams, 1980

Portrait, pencil and watercolour on paper

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Study for portrait of Senator John Button

Study for portrait of Senator John Button, 1992

Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Senator John Button, 1987

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2006

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Self Creation

Former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers recalls meeting iconic Australian artist Sidney Nolan.

Mick Molloy, 2009

Andrew Maccoll

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2009

Velasquez Touch

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers, explores the creative collaborations between four Australian artists living in Paris during the first years of the twentieth century.

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Andrew Bonneau

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2007

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Painters' paradise

Andrew Sayers feels the warmth in the paintings Matthew Perceval made while the sun shone in southern France.

Facing Facts

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2001

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.

Me Myself I

Andrew Sayers explores the self-portraits created by Australian artist Sidney Nolan.

Flash

Australian Athletes in Focus

Previous exhibition, 2006

Introduction The National Portrait Gallery’s photographic exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus explores various interpretations of Australian sporting men and women.

Open Air

Portraits in the Landscape

Previous exhibition, 2008

Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.

My Favourite Australian

Previous exhibition, 2008

My Favourite Australian is a project developed in collaboration with ABC TV and the people of Australia.

Money and swat

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2007

Andrew Sayers discusses the real cost of George Lambert's Self portrait with gladioli 1922.

The Fairfax Gift

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2002

This article examines the portraits gifted to the National Portrait Gallery by Fairfax Holdings in 2003.

Courage, Self-analysis and Skill

The story behind George Lambert's Self-portrait with Gladioli.

Andrew Gaze

'Make it fun'

Basketballer Andrew Gaze and photographer George Fetting.

Sir Henry Barkly

An interview with former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers, who describes the portrait of Sir Henry Barkly by Thomas Clark.

Rev. Andrew Mitchell Ramsay, 1865

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on paper laid on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

Sasha Grishin, 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Professor Paul Korner, 2011

Andrew Sullivan

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ann Korner, Nicholas Korner, Anthony Korner and Harriet Bingham 2015

Picture this...

This edited version of a speech by Andrew Sayers examines some of the antecedents of the National Portrait Gallery and set out the ideas behind the modern Gallery and its collection.

Marcia Langton, Brook Andrew and Trent Walter

'A big idea'

Brook Andrew, Larry Rawling

Professor Marcia Langton, artist Brook Andrew and printer Trent Walter discuss the creation of Marcia's portrait.

Peace, the Man and Hope, 2005

Portrait, screenprint on five sheets of paper

Gift of Brook Andrew in memory of Emmaline Rose Charnock 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

String of Pearls

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2001

Andrew Sayers discusses the portrait of Dr Joan Croll AO by the Australian artist John Brack.

Sir Zelman Cowen, 1982

Portrait, pencil, brush and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Peace, the Man and Hope (Anthony Mundine), 2005 by Brook Andrew and Larry Rawling (printer)

In focus

Magazine article, 2017

Brook Andrew, Marcia Langton and Anthony Mundine.

Marcia Langton, 2009

Brook Andrew, Trent Walter

Portrait, screenprint on paper

Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2009

David M Thomas

Dream Job

Previous exhibition, 2011

Since 1993 Brisbane-based artist David M Thomas has investigated self identity through art works that encompass painting, text, audio, video and performance.

Andy Thomas

'When I grow up I want to be an astronaut'

An interview with Australian astronaut, Dr. Andy Thomas, who describes the experience of space travel.

Thomas Atkinson

Thomas Lewis Atkinson (1817-c. 1890) is described in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists as 'one of the shining representatives of English engraving'.

1 portrait in the collection

Avril Thomas

Avril Thomas (b. 1956), artist, was born in Malaysia and went to boarding school in Scotland and Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Rover Thomas

Rover Thomas (1926-1998), Kukatja-Wangkajunga artist, was born in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia and worked as a stockman and fencer before losing his employment upon the introduction of equal pay for indigenous workers in 1975.

1 portrait in the collection

Gubbo Thomas

Guboo Ted Thomas (1909–2002), land rights activist, was a tribal Elder of the Yuin nation and grew up on the Wallaga Lake Reserve near Narooma.

1 portrait in the collection

Andy Thomas AO

Andy Thomas AO (b. 1951) is an astronaut. Born and educated in Adelaide, an engineer by profession, he managed a number of aeronautical programs and patented several inventions before joining NASA in 1992.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips was born in Dudley, Warwickshire and initially trained as a glass painter before moving to London, aged 20, with a letter of introduction to the painter Benjamin West.

6 portraits in the collection

Thomas Lord

Thomas Daunt Lord (1783–1865) was the commandant of the convict station on Maria Island from 1825 until 1832.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Buddle

Thomas Buddle (1812-1883), Wesleyan missionary, worked for 42 years in New Zealand, ministering to Maori and colonists in the Waikato, Auckland and the south.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook produced portraits for the Gentleman's Magazine and frontispieces for book publishers, as well as a number of single plates in different genres for Boydell.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Muir

Thomas Muir (1765-1799), lawyer, political activist and political convict, began studies at the University of Glasgow at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Bock

Thomas Bock, artist, printmaker and photographer, is believed to have been born at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, in 1790.

3 portraits in the collection

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated

Hon. Thomas Playford

The Hon. Thomas Playford was a delegate from South Australia to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney, 1891.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Keneally AO

Thomas Keneally (b.1935), author and republican activist, has achieved a considerable reputation for the breadth and accessibility of his writing, and his passion for causes about which many Australians feel deeply.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas J. Washbourne

Thomas J Washbourne worked as a photographer in Geelong and Melbourne in the 1860s and 70s.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas de Kessler

Thomas de Kessler, artist, came to Australia from Hungary in 1950. Born into an academic and creative family, he spoke several languages and had attended art school before arriving in Melbourne.

3 portraits in the collection

Thomas Clark

Thomas Clark, teacher and painter, arrived in Victoria from England in about 1852, having been anatomical draftsman at King's College London and headmaster of the Birmingham School of Design.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Pennant

Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), Welsh traveller, antiquary, naturalist, and author, visited Joseph Banks in September 1771, shortly after Banks returned from his voyage with Cook on the Endeavour.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Purves

Thomas Purves (1909-1969), known as Tam, founded the Australian Galleries in Smith Street, Collingwood, Melbourne with his wife Anne in 1956.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Pearce

Thomas Pearce (c. 1860-1909) was an apprentice on the English merchant vessel the Loch Ard, which embarked for Victoria in March 1878 carrying 37 crew and 16 passengers, many from the Carmichael family.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was one of the leading portrait painters of the Georgian era.

8 portraits in the collection

Thomas Brassey

Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836–1918), politician and governor, studied law and modern history at Oxford, but abandoned law for a career in politics two years after being called to the Bar.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Woolner

Thomas Woolner, sculptor, studied first with the brothers Henry and William Behnes, painter and sculptor respectively, and later at the Royal Academy, at which he was to become professor of sculpture in his fifties.

5 portraits in the collection

Thomas Lonigan

A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas McIntyre

A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Keneally part one

Recorded 1967

Thomas Keneally part two

Recorded 1967

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Self portrait, 1971

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diana de Kessler 2009

Charles William Vane-Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Karl Friedrich Abel

Thomas Gainsborough

William Wilberforce

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Magazine article by David Thomas AM, 2012

My dream job

Artist David M Thomas lists some of the ideas and influences behind his video portraits.

The considered life

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2010

Andrew Sayers asks whether a portrait can truly be the examination of a life.

All in the Family

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2002

Portrait launch of Major-General Paul Cullen AC CBE DSO and Bar ED (Rtd) and George Judah Cohen.

Thomas Forster Knox

The Knox's third son, Thomas Forster Knox (1849-1919) followed his father and older brother into business, and became prominent in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Heathfield Carrick

Thomas Heathfield Carrick, miniature painter, grew up in Carlisle, where he trained and traded as a chemist, painting miniatures in his spare time.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) is one of the most intriguing and talented figures in colonial Australian art.

4 portraits in the collection

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Thomas Herbert Maguire was a painter and lithographer working in London in the middle of the nineteenth century.

4 portraits in the collection

Thomas Foster Chuck and Son

Thomas Foster Chuck (c. 1826-1898) specialised in photographing well-known colonists, many of whom featured amongst the 700 photographs in his huge mosaic The Explorers and Early Colonists of Victoria.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas James Lempriere

Portrait, etching on paper

Thomas Lempriere came to Tasmania in 1822, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas White, midshipman, c. 1838

John Kay

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (1816-1878) was a merchant, shipbuilder, wool broker and pioneer of the technique of freezing meat for export.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane

Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane (1773-1860) was born into an aristocratic Scottish family and entered the army at the age of 16.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Joseph Carr

Thomas Joseph Carr (1839–1917) was the second Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, the successor to James Alipius Goold.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Foster Chuck

Thomas Foster Chuck (1826-1898), photographer and entrepreneur, was born in London and arrived in Victoria in 1861.

4 portraits in the collection

Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) travelled to Australia as a member of the expedition conducted by Owen Stanley on the Rattlesnake between 1846 and 1850.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Wentworth Wills

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

Thomas Wentworth (Tom) Wills (1836–1880), is popularly thought of as the co-inventor of Australian Rules football.

2 portraits in the collection

Rover Thomas, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Purchased 2005

Thomas Wentworth Wills

Thomas Muir of Huntershill, 1838

John Kay

by Nat Thomas & Concettina Inserra

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Portrait of mother (after Mirka), 2008

The Explorers & Early Colonists of Victoria

The Explorers & Early Colonists of Victoria, 1872

Portrait, composite albumen photograph on paper

Purchased 2018

Daniel Thomas, 1987

Judy Cassab AO CBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mr Peter Kampfner 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Thomas Christensen, 2006

by Mark Rogers

Major Thomas Lord, c. 1840

Purchased 2015

Andy Thomas, 2002

Montalbetti + Campbell

Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2002

Thomas Woolner, c. 1865

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

Reverend Thomas Buddle, 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Thomas Woolner in Australia

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Missing Persons

Desperately seeking Woolner medallions

John Thomas "Jack" Lang

John Thomas Lang (1876–1975) served two terms as premier of New South Wales in the 1920s and 1930s.

5 portraits in the collection

Thomas Keneally, 1987

Bernd Heinrich

Portrait, copper-line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Thomas Muir, 1800

François Bonneville

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Thomas Pennant, c. 1790

William Ridley

Portrait, stipple engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Thomas Leech, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Thomas Fitzherbert Hawkins, c. 1790

Portrait, oil on cotton laid down on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter E.B. Mansell 2018

Thomas Simson Pratt, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Portrait, ink, coloured pencil, gouache, crayon and fibre-tipped pen on double layer mount board with gold coloured ink border

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

The Last of the Angry Penguins - John Perceval, 1999

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

Anne Sanders writes about the exhibitions Victoria & Albert: Art & Love on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the retrospective of Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Jessie Robertson, c. 1849

Thomas Bock

Portrait, pencil, chalk and gouache on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Jessie Whyte, c. 1840

Thomas Bock

Portrait, pastel and chalk on paper laid down on cotton over Cedar strainer

Purchased 2017

Portrait of Tam Purves, 1958

John Brack

Portrait, ink, coloured pencil, gouache, crayon and fibre-tipped pen on single mount board with gold coloured ink border

Purchased 2012

John Perceval, 1999

Thomas de Kessler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001

Alexander Pearce
executed for murder
July 19th 1824

Public hanging

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1814

Thomas Phillips

Purchased 2011

William Charles Wentworth, 1854

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Charles Nicholson, 1854

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased through the Foundation Acquisitions Fund 2015

Jack Lang

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on paper laid on cardboard

Recorded 1967

Queen Susan, c. 1868

Thomas J. Washbourne

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Thomas Townshend, Lord Viscount Sydney

Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney PC (1733-1800) was British Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, given responsibility for devising a plan to settle convicts at Botany Bay.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche

Portrait, tinted lithograph on paper

Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche (1871–1936), actor, director and producer, was one of Australia’s most successful theatre exports.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Thomas Gore-Browne, 1864

J Walch & Sons

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Thomas Henry Huxley, c. 1870

Maull & Co Photographers

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Thomas Wentworth Wills, c. 1859

Portrait, 1/2 plate ambrotype with applied colour in a double elliptical brass matt in a leather case

Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Archbishop Thomas Joseph Carr, c. 1886

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Thomas Joseph Carr, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, c. 1887

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Lockdown dreaming II

John Morley, Madelin Bronar-Thomas and

Phillip Parker King, 1854

N Schiavonetti after Thomas Phillips

Portrait, cast plaster

Purchased 2000

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, 1812

Portrait, line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Edward Paine Butler, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Purchased 2009

Portrait of Henry Hopkins, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour on paper

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2013

William Robertson, 1866

Thomas Adams Hill

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria

Portrait of His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, c. 1864

Thomas Clark

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007

Poison pen

Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.

Charles Joseph La Trobe, 1853

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

Purchased 2006

The Cutmear sisters, Jane and Lucy, c. 1842

A man of superior attainments

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.

Ellen Stirling, c. 1828

Thomas Phillips

Purchased with funds provided by the Ian Potter Foundation 2008

Tom Wills, c. 1857 (printed c. 1905-1910)

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on grey paper on card

Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Edward Eyre Williams, 1872

Portrait, albumen silver photograph, hand coloured on paper

Gift of Ross and Judy O'Connell 2016

Jack Lang, 1931

Tom Glover

Portrait, pencil, pen and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Chevalier d'Éon

Thomas Stewart after Jean Laurent Mosnier

George French Angas, Thomas McLean

South Australian Illustrated (Plate 35), 1847

Portrait, Lithograph

Bishop James Moore, c. 1888-1889

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Robert Brown, 1850

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Charles Fox after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Alexander MacLeay, c. 1845

Thomas Foster Chuck and Son

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Dr James Moorhouse, 1878-1879

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Four from the 30s

The Photographic Society of Victoria, Melbourne

Australia's tradition of sculpted portraits stretches back to the early decades of the nineteenth century and continues to sustain a group of dedicated sculptors.

Thomas Pearce, c. 1878

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite on card

Purchased 2010

The Final Frontier

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2002

Magda Keaney talks with Montalbetti+Campbell about their photographic portrait of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c., 1838

John Cochran after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Portrait, fibreglass and resin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Jack Lang, life mask, n.d.

Arthur Murch

Purchased 2000

Jack Lang, 1970

Adam Martin

an unknown artist after Thomas Bock

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Elsie Martin 2000

Jane Franklin, c. 1866-1875

Portrait, carved marble relief

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

The people's champion, Mr Lang, c. 1927

Portrait, cast plaster, painted

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE

Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE, 2006

Avril Thomas

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Commissioned 2006

Preparatory study for Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE

Preparatory study for Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE, 2005

Avril Thomas

Commissioned 2006

Martha Sarah Butler, c. 1845

Portrait, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Purchased 2009

Captain W Kinghorne, 1834

Thomas James Lempriere

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007

Fine and dandy

Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.

William Dampier, c. 1780

an unknown artist after Thomas Murray

Portrait, copper-line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

William Henry Harvey, c. 1850

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Portrait, collage of coloured paper, pencil on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Jack Lang, c. 1930-1940

George Finey

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

John Gould, 1849

Thomas Herbert Maguire, M & N Hanhart

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

William Jackson Hooker, 1851

Thomas Herbert Maguire

Frederick Bromley after Robert Frain

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1842

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Round the World (Thomas Brassey), 1877

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Purchased 2015

Reverend William Bedford junior, c. 1846

Portrait, watercolour on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013

Pre-Raphaelite Profile

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.

Lord John Russell, 1844

Samuel Bellin after Thomas Heathfield Carrick

C E. Wagstaff after Thomas Phillips

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Sir Joseph Banks, 1840s

an unknown artist, D Bogue after Thomas Phillips

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Captain Sir John Franklin, Kt, KCH, KRG, DCL, FRS & c. Commander of the Arctic Expedition, 1845

Captain Sir John Franklin, Kt, KCH, KRG, DCL, FRS & c. Commander of the Arctic Expedition, 1845, c. 1847

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Men of the Day No.19 "A great Med'cine-Man among the Inqui-ring Redskins" (Thomas Henry Huxley), 1871

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Purchased 2015

Spikes: then and now

William Evans, Anthony Cardon after Sir Thomas Lawrence

As part of its ongoing program of commissions of portraits of prominent Australians, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a portrait of Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson by South Australian artist Avril Thomas.

Sir Joseph Banks, 1810

Thomas Woolnoth, Charles Knight

Purchased with funds provided by the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Canberra 2000

La Perouse, from a miniature in the possession of La Perouse's niece at Alby

La Perouse, from a miniature in the possession of La Perouse's niece at Alby, n.d.

Thomas Atkinson, Samuel Mullen after Henry Weigall Jnr

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

The Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Melbourne (Dr. Charles Perry)

The Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Melbourne (Dr. Charles Perry), 1876

Samuel Freeman, Fisher, Son & Co London after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

James Faed, W Wilding after John Watson Gordon

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1850 (published)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

The Burke and Wills Monument, 1869

Portrait, albumen paper photograph on carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Lord Viscount Sydney, c. 1790

John Young after Gilbert Stuart

Charles Turner after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, 1827

London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Oscar Asche, c. 1905

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, 2006 Ralph Heimans AM

Dane reign

Magazine article by Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby, 2018

Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.

Kismet (Mr Oscar Asche), 1912-1913

Alick Ritchie, Vanity Fair Magazine

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Gift of Ronald A Walker 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Rt. Honourable Lord Hawkesbury, 1808

Edward Scriven, J B Ball & J DeCamp after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Henry Samuel Sadd, Fergusson & Mitchell, Melbourne after Thomas Adams Hill

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

William John Wills, 2nd in command of the Victorian Expedition

William John Wills, 2nd in command of the Victorian Expedition, 1860-1861

Henry Samuel Sadd, Fergusson & Mitchell, Melbourne after Thomas Adams Hill

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007

Robert O'Hara Burke, Leader of the Victorian Expedition

Robert O'Hara Burke, Leader of the Victorian Expedition, 1860-1861

Thomas Woolnoth, William Mackenzie, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London & New York

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007

La Perouse, 1830s

Portrait, albumen silver photograph

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

The First Ministry under Responsible Government in New South Wales

The First Ministry under Responsible Government in New South Wales, 1856

Freeman Brothers

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882, page 1

Unknown artist Publisher Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

Edward Knox Jnr and Thomas Forster Knox., c. 1855

Henry Meyer, T Cadell & W Davies after Sir Thomas Lawrence, William Evans

Portrait, daguerreotype

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010

The Rt Hon. Henry Robert Stewart, Lord Viscount Castlereagh, MRIA & FRS

The Rt Hon. Henry Robert Stewart, Lord Viscount Castlereagh, MRIA & FRS, 1814

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Tiny Trace of a Colonial Giant

At just 7.8 x 6.2 cm, the daguerreotype of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa is one of the smallest works in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Woburn Sheepshearing, 1811

Thomas Morris, M N. Bates, Joseph C. Stadler after George Garrard

Portrait, aquatint with stipple and etching and engraving, hand coloured on chine colle on paper laid down on cotton stretched over wooden strainer

Purchased 2018

Thomas and John Clarke, bushrangers, photographed in Braidwood Gaol

Thomas and John Clarke, bushrangers, photographed in Braidwood Gaol, 1867

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on laid down on a section cut from a nineteenth century album page

Purchased 2019

Burnum Burnum and Guboo Ted Thomas, 1984

Juno Gemes

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2004

Henry Bathurst, Earl Bathurst, 1810

Henry Meyer after Thomas Phillips

Portrait, soft ground etching on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Robert Earl of Buckinghamshire (Hobart), 1808

Robert Dunkarton after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Magazine article by Stuart Purves, 2016

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Bonfire of the vanities

Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.

Captain James Cook FRS, 1784

Thomas Cook

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

Painting writing

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Ben Quilty, 2012

Andrew Quilty

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2014

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882

'The Australian Cricketers' from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News June 1882, 1882

Portrait, engravings on paper

Purchased 2009

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated, 1891

Portrait, engraving on paper (4 sheets)

Purchased 2009

Andrew Cowen

Winner, National Photographic Portrait Prize 2014

Andrew Cowen on photographing his friend Matthew Martin.

Rowan Thomas, 2015

by Graham Caughley

Archived media releases 2015

Andrew Sayers AM FAHA

13 October 2015

The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.

Andrew Gaze, 2018

by George Fetting

Commissioned with funds provided by Trent Birkett 2018

Thomas from series Bois to Men, 2014

by Monique Montfroy

Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

by Andrew Bonneau

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Ring Master, 2013

by Jennifer Voudiotis

NPPP 2012 learning resource

Andrew Campbell

An interview with the photographer.

Father and son, 2010

by Sean Fennessy

Wedgwood and Bentley

Portrait, coloured chalk and black ink on artist board

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), potter and industrialist, became an apprentice to his potter brother, Thomas, at an early age.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Ernest Thomas Fisk, 1943-1944

Charles Wheeler

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019

Lewis Pingo

Lewis Pingo was an engraver at the Royal Mint. Pingo's father Thomas, an Italian-born medallist and die engraver, was one of the founders of the Royal Academy in 1768.

1 portrait in the collection

Tom Hughes AO KC

Captain Moonlite et al on trial for murder

Hon Thomas Hughes AO KC (b. 1923), lawyer and former politician, was born in Sydney and educated at Riverview before serving in the RAAF during World War 2.

3 portraits in the collection

Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite, c.1879 attributed to Charles Nettleton

Diseased curiosity

Just after 10.00 o'clock on 3 December 1879, four prisoners were brought from their cells at Darlinghurst Gaol and placed in the dock of a courtroom heaving with agitated spectators

Portrait 51

Summer 2015–16

This issue feature articles on Andrew Sayers, Gordon Darling, our summer exhibition Sideshow Alley and more.

Paddy Jaminji (Jampin)

Paddy Jaminji (Jampin) (1912-1996), Kija visual artist, spent much of his life in and around his country near Bedford Downs station in WA.

1 portrait in the collection

A head for business and a heart for love

Lust

For love, not money

Theresa Mort

Previous exhibition, 2014

Theresa Shepheard Mort (née Laidley, 1820-1869), colonial spouse, was one of eight children of civil servant James Laidley and his wife Eliza Jane (née Shepheard).

2 portraits in the collection

The last bushrangers

It's Complicated

Brothers in harms

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2014

The National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition is selected from a national field of entries that reflect the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Second thoughts, 2008

by Brad Mitchell

September - November 2001

Portrait 1

The first edition of Portrait Magazine features an article on Sidney Nolan's portraiture by former Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers.

Susan Lord, c. 1840

Purchased 2015

Portrait 61

Summer 2018/19

Portrait, inkjet print on rag paper

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

Paddy Jaminji, 1986

Martin van der Wal

Purchased 2005

Jasperware medallion of Captain James Cook

Jasperware medallion of Captain James Cook, 1779

Wedgwood and Bentley

Portrait, white on blue Jasper Ware in oval shaped wood and gilt frame

Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

Portrait 37

September - November 2010

This issue features Jenny Sages, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, Brook Andrew's portrait of Marcia Langton, Nicholas Harding, Lola Montez, Mick Molloy and more.

Edward Henty, late 19th century

Previous exhibition, 2020

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tim Clark 2018

Study for portrait of Sir Rupert 'Dick" Hamer', 2009

Lewis Miller

Portrait, oil on linen

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir Andrew Grimwade CBE 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

Shirley Purdie

Using ochres collected on her country in Western Australia’s East Kimberley, Shirley Purdie’s self-portrait is a kaleidoscope of traditional Gija stories and Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) passed down to her.

Portrait 42

February - May 2012

This issue features Del Kathryn Barton, Renaissance Portraiture in New York, Australian impressionists, Nikki Toole’s Skater project, National Photographic Portrait Prize, Andrew Maccoll & Mick Fanning and more.

Dowling family portrait [Selina, Jane, Leura and Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling]

Dowling family portrait [Selina, Jane, Leura and Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling], c. 1862

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Portrait of a young man, held to be John Robertson

Portrait of a young man, held to be John Robertson, c. 1852

Portrait, daguerreotype, hand coloured

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Maria Dowling and her children Leura, Bessie, Selina, Jane, Jack, Ben and Joe Dowling [Selina Dowling, Jane Dowling, Maria Jane Dowling (née Ware), John Ware Dowling, Joseph Dowling, Benjamin Dowling, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling, Leura Dowling]

Maria Dowling and her children Leura, Bessie, Selina, Jane, Jack, Ben and Joe Dowling [Selina Dowling, Jane Dowling, Maria Jane Dowling (née Ware), John Ware Dowling, Joseph Dowling, Benjamin Dowling, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling, Leura Dowling], c. 1859

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Portrait 5

September - November 2002

This issue of Portrait Magazine features Bill Leak's portrait of Robert Hughes, Polly Borland's photographs, Bill Brandt, Andy Thomas, Tracey Moffatt and more.

Leura Dowling, c. 1861

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Maria Jane Dowling, c. 1862

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

William St Leonards Robertson (standing) beside an unidentified man

William St Leonards Robertson (standing) beside an unidentified man, early 1880s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Portrait 35

March - May 2010

This issue features suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Wainewright, Rick Amor, Chuck Close, Mick Dodson, Scott Redford, the National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition and more.

The Hon. James Whyte, c. 1874

John Hubert Newman

Portrait, eight carte de visites, hand coloured, contained in a red leather presentation case

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida], 1860s-1870s

Various

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Alexander Maurice Ramsay, 1978

Robert Hannaford AM

Portrait, oil on composition board

Gift of Janet, Andrew, Kathryn and Eleanor Ramsay, daughters and son of Alexander Maurice Ramsay and Amy Jane Ramsay 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Brian Croser AO, 1998

Kate Gollings

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001

Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

John Downman

Previous exhibition, 2002

She saved his life. He showed her painting.

Nearest & Dearest

Leaders, painters, friends

Angela Belgiorno-Zegna, 2001 by Salvatore Zofrea

Intimate Portraits

Intimate Portraits is an exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints that explore the less public side of portraiture

Album of cartes de visite and cabinet cards compiled by William St Leonards Robertson, 1860s-c. 1900

Various

Portrait, 24 page brown leather bound album of 119 cartes de visite and 16 cabinet card photographs

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Powerful energy

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2010

Dr Christopher Chapman explores the symbolism in the portrait commission of Marcia Langton by Brook Andrew.

John Chapman

Previous exhibition, 2001

Little is known of John Chapman, who engraved fine allegorical subjects after the designs of J Smith and Richard Corbould and worked closely with Thomas Macklin on his Shakespeare series.

2 portraits in the collection

Headspace 2

A dynamic young people's art exhibition, Hearts/Heads: Headspace II explored portraiture, produced by students from year 7 to year 12

COVID Self portrait 2

Glenn Morgan

Balla Neba

Michael Jalaru Torres

Magazine article by Alistair McGhie, 2010

A serious man

Alistair McGhie discusses Andrew MacColl's portrait photograph of Australian comedian Mick Molloy.

Shirley Purdie

Shirley Purdie (b. 1947) is a senior Gija artist at the Warmun Art Centre who has been painting for more than twenty years.

1 portrait in the collection

Paquita Mawson, late 1940s

Ingrid Erns

Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Martha Knox, c. 1855

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

Portrait, daguerreotype

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010

The first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America

The first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America, 1878

A & G Taylor

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Douglas Mawson, 1933

Henry James Haley

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Nine square images of previous winners of the National Photographic Portrait Prize

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024

Upcoming exhibition

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Moses Griffith

Moses Griffith, topographer, draftsman, watercolourist and engraver, spent his life in the service of Thomas Pennant, antiquarian and amateur naturalist; although engaged as a servant, he was employed by Pennant as a full time artist from 1771.

1 portrait in the collection

François Jacques Dequevauvillier

François Jacques Dequevauviller was the son of the French engraver Nicolas-Barthelemy François Dequevauviller (1745–1807).

1 portrait in the collection

Joy Warren

Joy Warren OAM (1922-2015), gallerist, was the owner-director of Canberra’s Solander Gallery from 1974.

1 portrait in the collection

Dave

Jay Hynes

John T. Barber

John Thomas Barber, army officer, insurer, miniaturist and philanthropist, took the additional name of Beaumont in 1812.

1 portrait in the collection

Hon Tom Hughes KC, 2001

Jiawei Shen

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

John Williams

John Williams (1796-1839), missionary, began his working life in 1810, apprenticed to an ironmonger, but in 1814 he underwent an Evangelical conversion and became a member of the Tabernacle Church (Calvinistic Methodist).

1 portrait in the collection

Dr Sarah Engledow

Dr Sarah Engledow was appointed Historian at the National Portrait Gallery in 1999.

Robert T. Carter

Robert Thomas Carter (1843–1917) was a leading Sydney cabinetmaker and furniture warehouseman, and later an antique dealer.

2 portraits in the collection

Supporters

$5,000 - $9,999

Eleanor Wingate

Eleanor Wingate (née Rouse, 1813–1898) was the second youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

The spirit of the gift

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers celebrates the support given to the Gallery by Gordon and Marilyn Darling.

Monument to Mrs. Moore St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool, Sydney

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.

Eleanor Wingate (née Rouse), c. 1850

Portrait, hand coloured photograph

Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)

doppelgänger

Previous exhibition, 2009

doppelgänger is the second in a series of virtual exhibitions held by the National Portrait Gallery that explore contemporary notions of portraiture in the online environment.

Professor Sasha Grishin AM

Sasha Grishin AM (birth date undisclosed) is the Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History at the Australian National University.

1 portrait in the collection

George Mealmaker

Previous exhibition, 2003

George Mealmaker (1768–1808), convict and activist, became involved in radical politics in his native Dundee in the 1780s.

1 portrait in the collection

Headspace 4

Facing Memory

Facing Memory: Headspace 4 provides us with valuable insights into the thoughts, creative processes and art-making practices of secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 from sixty-two schools in the Australian Capital Territory, regional New South Wales and Victoria

Sir William Beechey

Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1 portrait in the collection

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022)

9 September 2022

Media

The National Portrait Gallery is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Throughout her 70-year reign, Her Majesty represented graciousness, humanity and stability during times of enormous social change.

Tom Glover

English-born Thomas Ellis Glover moved to New Zealand as a child and by his early twenties was working as a cartoonist, court reporter and journalist.

10 portraits in the collection

Neville and Jill Wran - as the Duke and Duchess of Sydney (with apologies to Piero della Francesca)

Jill Hickson Wran AM

Jill Hickson Wran AM (b. 1948) graduated from the University of Sydney and then worked for Qantas.

1 portrait in the collection

First Australian first-class cricket team

The ‘first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America’ was in fact the second Australian cricket side to contest matches internationally (a team of Indigenous players having done so in 1868), but it is considered the first official national representative team to tour overseas.

1 portrait in the collection

N Schiavonetti

Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, studied art for several years before being employed by an engraver named Testolini to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which Testolini passed off as his own.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait 56

Autumn 2017

Browse the history of the National Photographic Portrait Prize, Cayce Zavaglia's embroidered portraiture, and modern wedding photography!

Sir James Hardy OBE

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured on glass plate with black paint backing

Sir James Hardy OBE (1932-2023) was a wine industry executive, yachtsman and community leader.

1 portrait in the collection

Mr and Mrs R. T. Carter, c. 1863

Milligan Bros (Studio)

Gift of Mr and Mrs James Bain 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

A & G Taylor

Celebrating 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection

Photographers Andrew Taylor and George Taylor opened their first studio in Cannon Street in east London in 1866.

1 portrait in the collection

Of Kings and men

Previous exhibition, 2011

This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

Previous exhibition, 2007

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Portrait Paintings by Matthew Perceval

From 1967 until 1981 Matthew Perceval lived and painted in France and during those years produced a large body of portrait paintings.

On commission

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2002

Former NPG Director Andrew Sayers discusses the art of commissioning portraits.

The mystery of Enoch Arden

Tennyson's Enoch Arden was inspired by a story that Thomas Woolner passed on to him – but whose story and of whom?

Portrait 60

Spring 2018

Ralph Heimans on his portraits, and features on Louis Kahan, Helena Rubinstein, Judy Cassab and Tasmanian convicts.

John Kaldor AO

John Kaldor, textile designer and manufacturer, was born in Hungary. He came to Australia with his family in 1948.

1 portrait in the collection

New Australians bring creative wealth

Nearest & Dearest

Melbourne’s iconic culture-shapers

Sir James Balderstone

Sir James Balderstone (1921-2014) was chairman of BHP from 1984 to 1989.

1 portrait in the collection

Ethel Anderson and her daughter, Bethia, c. 1912

G.W. Lawrie

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2009

Gift of Mrs SM Asplin 2011

In the round

Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.

Contemporary Australian Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2002

Contemporary Australian Portraits is a cross section, a sampling, of some of the present-day directions in Australian portrait practice

Opening of the first Parliament of the Australian Commonwealth, 9th May 1901

Opening of the first Parliament of the Australian Commonwealth, 9th May 1901, 1903

Tom Roberts, Goupil & Cie

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Penny Amberg and Andrew Bond 2001
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Fred Schepisi AO

Fred Schepisi AO (b. 1939), film producer and director, briefly trained to be a priest before working in advertising.

1 portrait in the collection

Eileen, 2017

by Sue Healey

Finalist, DPA 2017
Single channel HD digital video

Sir James Hardy, c. 1975 (printed 2002)

Lewis Morley

Previous exhibition, 2013

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Paul Kelly and The Portraits

Aspects of singer songwriter Paul Kelly’s performance persona are communicated by portraits selected from a range of artists and leading music photographers in this focus exhibition.

National Portrait Gallery unveils twenty new portrait commissions to celebrate twenty years

18 October 2018

Archived media releases 2018

The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled twenty new portrait commissions of Australian leaders and individualists as part of its twentieth birthday celebrations in a new exhibition, 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.

Sir Eugene Goossens

Sir (Aynsley) Eugene Goossens (1893-1962) was an English conductor, composer and violinist.

2 portraits in the collection

Sean Godsell

Sean Godsell (b. 1960) a Melbourne-based architect, is known internationally for his distinctive residential architecture.

1 portrait in the collection

James Heath

James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.

2 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Sean Godsell, 2009 by Earl Carter

Sean Godsell Architects

Based in Melbourne, Sean Godsell is known internationally for his distinctive residential architecture.

R O'Hara Burke, c. 1861

De Gruchy & Leigh

Purchased 2009

William John Pickett Bedford

Portrait, watercolour and gouache on paper

William John Pickett Bedford (1805–1869) was the eldest of three children of Anglican clergyman, William Bedford (1781–1852), and his wife, Eleanor, and came to Van Diemen’s Land with his family in 1823 following the appointment of his father to a chaplaincy in the colony.

1 portrait in the collection

Theresa and James Laidley Mort, 1844

William Nicholas

Gift of the Mort family 2009

William John Wills, c. 1861

De Gruchy & Leigh

François Bonneville after Joseph Jauffret

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Nicolas Baudin, Capitaine de Vaisseau. Commandant I'Expedition pour le tour du Monde et Specialement relatif aux Sciences et auz Arts, entreprise en I'An gme, 1800

Nicolas Baudin, Capitaine de Vaisseau. Commandant I'Expedition pour le tour du Monde et Specialement relatif aux Sciences et auz Arts, entreprise en I'An gme, 1800, 1800

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

The fortepianist - portrait of Dr Geoffrey Lancaster

The fortepianist - portrait of Dr Geoffrey Lancaster, 2011

Jude Rae

Portrait, oil on linen

Gift of Dr Andrew Lu OAM 2013 . Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

2020 Annual Appeal

In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.

Fred Schepisi, c. 2000

Kate Gollings

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004

Charles Darwin

John Collier

Who is Lillie Roberts?

Devotion

Talented wife for a talented husband

Eugene Goossens, c. 1954

Max Dupain OBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

Elizabeth Sarah Ellen Carter

Elizabeth Sarah Ellen Carter (née Hill, 1845-1927) was one of the eight children born to Sydney cabinetmaker and undertaker John Hill jnr and his wife Elizabeth - the step-daughter of ex-convict boatman, John Cadman.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Robert Garran, 1922

Bernard Hall

Gift of John Garran 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

John Schaeffer AO - art collector and philanthropist

John Schaeffer AO - art collector and philanthropist, 2014

Evert Ploeg

Purchased with funds provided by Harold Mitchell AC

Charles Hewitt

Born in Lincolnshire, Charles Hewitt (1837–1912) had begun working in Melbourne by 1860 and was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Victoria.

3 portraits in the collection

Nicholas Baudin

Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754–1803), cartographic surveyor and naturalist, was sent by the French government to survey the coast of Australia in 1800.

1 portrait in the collection

Nam Le, 2010

Rozalind Drummond

Purchased 2010

Nam Le

Nam Le (b. 1978), writer, came to Australia as a baby with his Vietnamese refugee parents.

1 portrait in the collection

Queenie McKenzie Nakara

Queenie McKenzie (c. 1930–1998) was a prominent Gija artist in the East Kimberley painting movement.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur T. Woodward

Arthur Thomas 'A T' Woodward (1865–1943), painter and art scholar, was born in Birmingham, England.

1 portrait in the collection

Frederick Cato, 1932

W B McInnes

Gift in memory of Frederick John Cato Kumm 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

George Richmond

George Richmond, son of the miniature painter Thomas Richmond, grew up in London, took early artistic instruction from his father and enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Mundy

Artist Henry Mundy arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 and took up a position as teacher of drawing, French and music at Ellinthorp Hall, a school near Ross established ‘with a view to the improvement of Young Ladies’.

4 portraits in the collection

Two grounps of three people standing in a studio with walls and shelves filled with artworks

Arts Project Australia

Artists and Collectives

Arts Project Australia is a creative social enterprise based in Naarm/Melbourne that supports neurodiverse artists, promoting their work and advocating for inclusion within contemporary arts practice.

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre and Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre

Hans Eworth

Eugene Goossens, c. 1954

Max Dupain OBE

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Joseph Banks, 1802

William Ridley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

C.H.T. Costantini

Charles Henry Theodore Costantini (also Constantine, Constantini and Costantine) was a Paris-born surgeon of Italian descent who was twice transported to the Australian colonies in the 1820s.

1 portrait in the collection

To coin a (farewell) phrase

Devotion

A penny for their thoughts

Francis Nixon

Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879) photographer, artist and Anglican clergyman, arrived in Hobart in 1843 to take up the role of Bishop of Tasmania.

2 portraits in the collection

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

George Fetting

George Fetting (b. 1964) is a Sydney-based photographer specialising in portrait, travel and editorial work.

8 portraits 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

William Fernyhough

Previous exhibition, 2018

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

Collection: Icons

Volume Two

The second instalment of a display featuring bold contemporary portraits drawn from the collection. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

Sir Francis Forbes KNt

Five Years of National Portrait Gallery Commissions

Sir Francis Forbes (1784–1841) was the first chief justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

1 portrait in the collection

Making Portraits

The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery

Paul Kelly, 2007

Peter Brew-Bevan

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, poly toned on paper

Gift of the artist 2012

Cate Blanchett, 1998

Sage

Gift of the artist 1999

Reflections on portraiture

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

An extract from the 2004 Nuala O'Flaaherty Memorial Lecture at the Queen Victoria Musuem and Art Gallery in Launceston in which Andrew Sayers reflects on the unique qualities of a portrait gallery.

2021 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.

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew, early 1880s

Hills & Saunders

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Wesley Stacey

Wesley Stacey (1941–2023), photographer, was an apprentice silk screener and studied drawing and design at East Sydney Technical College in the early 1960s before working as a graphic designer and photographer in Sydney and London.

3 portraits in the collection

Thomas Archbold, Durham, 1826 by John Dempsey

Street fare

Portrait, synthetic polymer and enamel paint on canvas

The late Georgian and early Victorian working classes often bought their food in ale-houses, chop-houses and ‘penny pie shops’, or purchased their meals day after day in the streets.

Paul Kelly, 2004

Jon Campbell

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004

Glossy - Faces Magazines Now

Previous exhibition, 1999

Magazines are the portrait galleries of the 90s... Glossy is about magazines. The exhibition presents the work of eight photographers, Australian by birth or long-term residency, who are producing portraits for publication in magazines around the world.

Neville and Jill Wran - as the Duke and Duchess of Sydney (with apologies to Piero della Francesca), 1983

Frank Hodgkinson

Portrait, oil on canvas (diptych)

Gift of Mrs Kate Hodgkinson 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir Richard Owens

Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892), naturalist, anatomist and palaeontologist, was born in Lancaster and apprenticed to surgeon-apothecaries there before completing his studies in medicine in Edinburgh and London.

1 portrait in the collection

Annual Appeal

Listed by year

Previous exhibition, 2002

Headspace 3

Being Me

The self-portrait enables students to explore emerging and changing aspects of their own identity, their sense of self, their place in the world, their experience of being human

Michael Kelly, 1998

Portrait, soft ground etching on paper.

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Martha Kermode, c. 1840

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Robert Kermode, c. 1840

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Lady Mary Hay

Lady Hay, née Chalmers (c. 1806-1892) was reported at the time of her death to have been about ten years older than Hay.

1 portrait in the collection

Thea Proctor

Portrait, natural ochre and pigments on canvas (36 parts)

Thea Proctor (1879–1966), artist and stylesetter, trained at the Julian Ashton School before leaving Australia for London in 1903.

3 portraits in the collection

Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe, 2018

Shirley Purdie

Purchased 2019

Ethel Anderson

Ethel Anderson (née Mason, 1883-1958), writer and artist, was an important figure in the Sydney modern art scene of the 1920s and 30s.

2 portraits in the collection

Joan Kerr

Joan Kerr (1938-2004), art historian, writer and lecturer, was responsible for several key reference texts on Australian art.

1 portrait in the collection

Sporting Archibald

Celebrating the focus on sport during 2000, this special exhibition features our national sporting heroes and heroines immortalised on canvas

General Cosgrove, Dili, East Timor 1999, 2006

an unknown artist after Sir Joshua Reynolds

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Andrew Cannon and L. Gordon Darling AC CMG 2006

Portrait of Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1770

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018

John Lewin

John Lewin was Australia's first free-settler professional artist. He arrived in Sydney in 1800, intervention from influential patrons having secured him the assurance of rations.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Abraham

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on cabinet card

Charles Abraham, son of a London architect, trained at the Royal Academy schools under the sculptor Sierier, and for a further three years in Paris and Rome.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Henry Kendall, c. 1890-1894

S. Milbourn Jnr

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Wilfred John Peisley

Portrait, oil on masonite

Wilfrid John Peisley, born in Bathurst, won a number of prizes at regional shows before gaining a scholarship to the East Sydney Technical College at the age of seventeen.

1 portrait in the collection

David Armstrong, B.A., B. Phil., 1959

Clifton Pugh AO

Gift of Jennifer Armstrong 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Cate Blanchett AC

Cate Blanchett AC (b. 1969), actor and humanitarian, graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992, joined the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and soon received the Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle award for Best Newcomer for Kafka Dances (1993).

4 portraits in the collection

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Seeing stars

Celebrating Science Week

It has been suggested that Sir Thomas Brisbane’s interest in the New South Wales governorship was as attributable to his passion for astronomy as to the desirability of the position as a prestigious career move.

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.

Storied portrait

Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.

Kym Bonython

Hugh Reskymer 'Kym' Bonython AC DFC AFC (1920-2011), company director, art dealer, jazz authority, music promoter and speedway entrepreneur, was one of the most significant collectors and dealers of contemporary Australian art in the post-war period.

2 portraits in the collection

Portrait 64

Summer 2019/20

Australian Painters Photographed by R. Ian Lloyd

Marian Anderson, emerging photographer Charles Dennington, piscatorial portraits, and the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou and more.

Studio

Previous exhibition, 2007

Studio: Australian Painters Photographed by R

Prison and death in the 19th century

Two iBooks of authentic records

Learning resources

These books include sixteen inmates including Ned Kelly, Captain Moonlite and Frederick Deeming and twelve sketches of the deceased, including several children. For Year 7 – 9 students.

Clem Hill (member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team)

Clem Hill (member of the 1896 Australian Cricket Team), 1896

H Parker Rolfe

Portrait, albumen photograph on cabinet card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014

Jules Poret de Blosseville

Jules Poret de Blosseville (1802-1833), geographer, navigator and explorer, was a junior officer on the Coquille, which, under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey, conducted a voyage to Oceania and South America between 1822 and 1825.

1 portrait in the collection

Frederick Cato

Previous exhibition, 2006

Frederick Cato (1858-1935), grocer and philanthropist, was born in a tent at Pleasant Creek (Stawell), to the Scottish wife of an English gold miner.

1 portrait in the collection

Portraits for Posterity

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.

Jon Molvig

Previous exhibition, 2009

Helge Jon Molvig was born and grew up in Newcastle, where he left school at thirteen and worked in a garage and at the steelworks.

6 portraits in the collection

National Photographic Portrait Prize 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.

Rodney Hall OAM

Rodney Hall OAM (b. 1935), writer, came to Australia in 1947 and settled in Brisbane.

2 portraits in the collection

Leo Schofield, 2001

Brent Harris

Commissioned with funds provided by Angela Nevill, Nevill Keating Pictures Ltd, in memory of William Keating 2001

Aldershot Cavalry (Major General Reginald Talbot)

Hon. Sir Reginald Talbot KCB

The Hon Sir Reginald Talbot KCB (1841-1929), army officer and English MP, was governor of Victoria from April 1904 to July 1908.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Kendall

Henry (Thomas Henry) Kendall (1839-1882) was once regarded as the finest poet Australia had produced.

1 portrait in the collection

Queenie McKenzie Nakara, 1997

Greg Weight

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Icons Syndicate

Lists alphabetically

Tom Durkin

Thomas Coleman Durkin trained at the Williamstown School of Design and started work in Melbourne as an apprentice to an engraver and then a jeweller.

27 portraits in the collection

2014-15 Acquisition Fund

Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.

Donors

$10,000 - $49,999

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Husbands and Wives

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior

Piper, the native who accompanied Major Mitchell in his expedition to the interior, c. 1836

William Fernyhough

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

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

William Barak

Sir Edward E. Williams

Sir Edward Eyre Williams (1813–1880), judge and barrister, arrived in Port Phillip in 1842 having been admitted to the Bar in London nine years earlier.

1 portrait in the collection

Clem Hill

Clem Hill (1877–1945) was one of sixteen children and born into a notable Adelaide sporting family.

1 portrait in the collection

Maurice Felton

Maurice Appleby Felton (1803-1842) arrived in Sydney with his wife and four children in late 1839 as surgeon to the immigrant ship the Royal Admiral.

3 portraits in the collection

Dr G Yunupingu

Magazine article, 2017

Dr G Yunupingu (1970-2017), a man of the Gumatj clan of north-east Arnhem Land, learned to play guitar, keyboard, drums and didgeridoo as a child.

Mark Mohell

Portrait photography by John Elliott

Mark Mohell has been Image Services Manager at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra since 2010.

1 portrait in the collection

Thousand Mile Stare

Thousand mile stare provides a unique portrait of people of rural Australia

Wes Stacey, Kurnell, Sydney, 1973 (printed 2000)

David Moore

Contemporary women artists make Australian history

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

Marilyn Ball, Albatross, 2018 (detail) by Linde Ivimey

So Fine

Previous exhibition, 2018

This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.

Thomas Mathewson (inset) and his studio on Queen Street, c. 1908 by Thomas Mathewson & Co

Northern exposure

Magazine article by Phil Manning, 2017

Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.

An Australian story

Magazine article by The Hon. Dr Kevin Rudd, 2009

In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.

Mirror With A Memory

Photographic Portraiture in Australia

This is the first major exhibition to examine photographic portraiture in Australia, from its beginnings in the early 1840s to the present day

Michelle Simmons AO

Michelle Simmons AO (b. 1967), 2018 Australian of the Year, is a pioneer in atomic electronics and quantum computing.

1 portrait in the collection

Cannonical

Portrait, gouache on paper

Walter Lindrum, world-famous billiards player, was one of Australia's greatest sporting champions.

Fred Gruen, 1941

Erwin Fabian

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds donated by Andrew Sayers and from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Jeremiah Ware

Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mary Ware

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

Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.

1 portrait in the collection

MacKenzie family silhouette, 1846

Samuel Metford

Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007

All there in black and white

Photography and mortality

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.

The Last Picture Show (Lewis Morley and Henry Talbot)

Reveries

Previous exhibition, 2007

Featuring works by Australian and New Zealand photographers from the late 1970s up to the present day Reveries focuses on images made in the presence of or consciousness of death.

Arthur Boyd Portraits

Previous exhibition, 1999

This is the first in a series of National Portrait Gallery exhibitions to survey the portraits painted by artists who are not thought of, primarily, as portrait painters

Past directors

History

Directors of the National Portrait Gallery from 1998 to today.

Dr Arthur Martin a'Beckett

Previous exhibition, 2003

Dr Arthur Martin a’Beckett FRCS (1812-1871) surgeon and New South Wales parliamentarian studied at London University from 1831 before undertaking a residency in Paris, centre for innovation in the practice of hygiene, pathological anatomy and physiopathology.

2 portraits in the collection

Lewis Morley

Myself and Eye

Lewis Morley has a great eye for a shot and a sharp ear for a pun

Howard Taylor, 1988 (printed 2001)

John Austin

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Howard Taylor, 1988 (printed 2001)

John Austin

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Peter Brew-Bevan Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2005

In this exhibition Sydney based photographer Peter Brew-Bevan brings together an intimate collection of works that highlight his passion for the genre of portraiture over the last 10 years

Sideshow Alley

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

Previous exhibition, 2015

Death masks, post-mortem drawings and other spooky and disquieting portraits... Come and see how portraits of infamous Australians were used in the 19th century.

Maria Kozic

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

Maria Kozic (b. 1957), painter and sculptor, and Philip Brophy (b. 1959), film director, composer, performer and curator, collaborated in the avant-garde performance/happening group ??? (spoken as tsk tsk tsk) and other projects between 1977 and the mid-1980s.

1 portrait in the collection

The painter and the princess

Michael Desmond interviews Ralph Heimans about his portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

Jaq Grantford

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

Melbourne-born artist Jaq Grantford has been a finalist multiple times in portrait prizes such as the Black Swan Prize, the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and the Portia Geach Memorial Award.

1 portrait in the collection

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney

Heads of the People

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2019

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

Karl Robert, Count Nesselrode, 1818 by Sir Thomas Lawrence

The Lawrence lustre

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

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.

Valerie Kirk

Contributing artists

Born: 1957, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Works: Canberra

Clifton Pugh

Australians

Previous exhibition, 2005

This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.

The Australian Cricket Team 1882

Portrait, single channel moving image, colour, sound, 9 minutes, 56 seconds

The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Cate Blanchett, 2008

David Rosetzky

Commissioned with funds provided by Ian Darling 2008

Richard Walley OAM honoured in new Portrait Gallery commission

2 September 2015

Archived media releases 2015

A new commissioned portrait funded by the Gallery’s Foundation will be launched at Murdoch University in Perth tonight, Wednesday 2 September.

John Piper

Piper (life dates unknown), also known as John Piper, was a Wiradjuri man who acted as a guide to Thomas Mitchell’s surveying expedition along the Murray and Darling Rivers into present-day Victoria in 1836.

2 portraits in the collection

Phillip Brophy

1 portrait in the collection

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-c. 1848) went to school and university in Germany but the range of his interests was such that he never actually graduated (he was later called Dr Leichhardt in recognition of his broad scholarship).

1 portrait in the collection

Maria Kozic and Philip Brophy 1, 1981, 1981 (printed 2012)

Robert Rooney

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Reflections on castles

Andrew Sayers describes the unique characteristics of the international band of portrait galleries.

William Johnson (1873—1948) by Percy Leason

Recognition

Percy Leason's Aboriginal Portraits

Previous exhibition, 1999

Originally conceived as an anthropological record, Percy Leason’s powerful 1934 portraits of Victorian Aboriginal people are today considered to be a highlight of 20th century Australian portraiture

Rick Amor

21 Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2014

Rick Amor, noblest yet most unaffected of contemporary Australian portraitists, is also a painter of enigmatic, ominous landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes that haunt the viewer like dreams, dimly-recalled.

Support Crew

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2011

Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.

TW Edgeworth David and Vilhjalmur Stefansson

TW Edgeworth David and Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 1924

Annie May Moore

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

David Strachan

Magazine article by David Solkin, 2019

David Strachan (1919–1970), painter and printmaker, was educated at Geelong Grammar School and then studied art at the Slade School in London.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Gainsborough, c.1758-59 by Thomas Gainsborough

Keep it in the family

David Solkin ponders the provocations and inspirations of the enigmatic Thomas Gainsborough.

Australian Princess

Magazine article by Katherine Russell, 2005

The full-length portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark by artist Jiawei Shen, has become a destination piece for visitors.

Sir George Houston Reid GCB GCMG KC

Magazine article by Celina Fox, 2006

Sir George Houstoun Reid GCB GCMG KC (1845-1918) was Australian prime minister from August 1904 to July 1905.

3 portraits in the collection

Portrait of an English Woman c. 1532-5 (detail)

A new perspective

An exhibition devoted to Hans Holbein's English commissions shows the portraitist bringing across the Channel new technical developments in art - with a dazzling facility.

Australian Tapestry Workshop

Previous exhibition, 2023

The Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) was established in 1976, following two years of planning and research on the part of its founding patrons, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Lady Joyce Delacombe.

2 portraits in the collection

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

This sample of 56 photographs takes in some of the smallest photographs we own and some of the largest, some of the earliest and some of the most recent, as well as multiple photographic processes from daguerreotypes to digital media.

John Connell

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

John Connell (c. 1759–1849), free settler, merchant and landowner, came to New South Wales aboard the Earl Cornwallis, which arrived in Sydney in June 1801.

1 portrait in the collection

Good, bad and the ugly

Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.

Betsy (Bessie) Lee

Previous exhibition, 2013

Betsy (Bessie) Lee Cowie (1860–1950), 'Australia's Temperance Queen', spent the early part of her life in Daylesford, Victoria, one of the five children of Henry Vickery, a butcher and miner, and his wife Emma.

1 portrait in the collection

Judy Cassab

The artist's diary

The artist's diary profiles six decades of Cassab's work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020

Previous exhibition, 2020

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

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.

Elizabeth Lewis

Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Mortimer Lewis

Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.

1 portrait in the collection

Margaret Robertson, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Mark Strizic

A Journey in Photography

This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.

Bathing woman, Bridlington, c.1825 by John Dempsey

Allow me to introduce...

Self Portraits in Australia

These full-length figures in watercolour, gouache and pencil date mostly from the 1820s, and almost all come from the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.

To Look Within

Previous exhibition, 2005

This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present

Glossy 2

Faces, Magazines, Now

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.

A Captured Moment

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2001

The acquisition of David Moore's archive of portrait photographs for the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Twenty new portraits marking Portrait Gallery’s twentieth birthday

21 August 2018

Archived media releases 2018

To celebrate the National Portrait Gallery’s twentieth anniversary as an institution, twenty portraits of outstanding Australian individuals have been commissioned for the permanent collection. This is the largest undertaking for the Gallery’s commissioning program in its twenty-year existence.

Fits of delicacy and despair

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.

Mrs Elizabeth Lewis, c. 1830

Portrait, watercolour on ivory

Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Interiors

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

Christopher Chapman previews the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009.

Black tie or wombat: How formal should I go?

Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

W & D Downey

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Alfredo Esquillo Jr

by Patrick D. Flores

Artist essays

Born in Manila in 1972, Alfredo Esquillo Jr majored in painting at University of Santo Thomas.

Artists and guests at the
doppelgnger exhibition
launch on Portrait Island

Virtually human

Magazine article by Gillian Raymond, 2009

Gillian Raymond describes the National Portrait Gallery's second virtual exhibition doppelgänger.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

Previous exhibition, 2022

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Lord Kitchener

Imperial strategist

Archived media releases 2018

Once central to military strategy and venerated in patriotic households, Lord Kitchener is now largely forgotten.

Greta In Her Kitchen, 36 weeks, 2018 by Alana Holmberg

Canon Australia takes National Photographic Portrait Prize first place to new heights

5 September 2018

Entries are now open for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019, with the winner set to receive $52,000 in cash and prizes, including superb contributions from new sponsor, Canon Australia.

The consolations of religion

A bushranger meets his maker, 6 January 1826

Previous exhibition, 2006

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

Australian Visit

The exhibition will include works of art from the NPG Canberra's permanent collection with some inward loans and aims to highlight the achievements of notable Australians.

Presenting… Shirley Purdie’s Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

Wednesday 27 May 2020

Archived media releases 2020

The National Portrait Gallery this week launches an online exhibition of Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe to coincide with Reconciliation Week.

Leigh Bowery, 1984

Robyn Beeche

Portrait, steel engraving on paper

Gift of Claudia Hyles, Dr Christiane Lawin-Bruessel, Gwenda Matthews, Gael Newton, Anne O'Hehir, Susan Smith and Dominic Thomas in memory of our friend, Robyn Beeche 2016

Matthew Burnett, c. 1865

Henry Samuel Sadd

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

Previous exhibition, 2023

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Dr Edward MacMahon, 1959 by William Dobell

Bill and Ted's excellent portrait.

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2016

Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.

The Quiet Australian

Magazine article by Brian Dale, 2001

Robert Oatley talks about the repatriation of the John Webber portrait of Captain James Cook.

Little treasures

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2002

The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.

Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who subsequently became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

4 portraits in the collection

William Francis King, 'The Flying Pieman'

William Francis King, 'The Flying Pieman', c. 1869

John Davis

Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2010

Georg von Neumayer, c. 1860

Johnstone & Co

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2002

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

A Meeting of Great Minds

The story behind Rick Amor's portrait of Professor Peter Doherty.

Robert O'Hara Burke, c. 1860

Melbourne and Sydney Photographic Co

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863

William Edward Kilburn

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite

Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.

The Tichborne Claimant (Arthur Orton), c. 1872

Maull & Co Photographers

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Two pair

Magazine article by Dr Jacqui Strecker, 2008

Stuttgart's Art Museum is showing Otto Dix portraits alongside artists from Lucas Cranach to Andy Warhol.

True Stories

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2005

The story behind the creation of the portrait of Helen Garner by Jenny Sages.

Hattie Shepparde, 1872

Bardwell's Royal Studio

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

Learning resources

Let’s look closely at the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 together! For students and family groups.

The story of us

Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.

Sir Charles Nicholson

Magazine article by Michelle Fracaro, 2004

Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903), statesman, landowner, businessman, connoisseur, scholar and physician, was born illegitimately into unpropitious circumstances in Yorkshire.

2 portraits in the collection

101 photographic portraits

Pat Corrigan's generous gift of 100 photographic portraits by Greg Weight.

Portrait of the Gallery

Magazine article by Graeme Dix, 2016

A design diary retrospective.

Portrait of Professors Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis

Portrait of Professors Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis, 2017

Jacqueline Mitelman

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2002

Commissioned with funds provided by Jim and Barbara Higgins, Sir Roderick Carnegie AC, Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer, Louise and Martyn Myer Foundation, Peter and Ruth McMullin, Diana Carlton, Professor Derek Denton AC, Harold Mitchell AC, Peter Jopling AM KC, Andrew and Liz Mackenzie, Patricia Patten, Tamie Fraser AO, Bruce Parncutt and Robin Campbell, Lauraine Diggins, Steven Skala AO and Lousje Skala 2017

123 Faces

Magda Keaney examines the 123 Faces project by Simon Obarzanek.

Melanie Faith Dove

Finalist interviews

I had been watching Agnes with intrigue, her face and profile were so mesmerizing. On our final day together I pulled her aside and convinced her that she had such an amazing face that I needed to get a photograph for myself. It was very spontaneous in that I decided quickly how it would best look and shot it in only two frames.

Nicholas Chevalier, c. 1867

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Krystal Seigerman

Finalist interviews

The photograph was a brief, candid moment, which unfolded into a portrait. Peter and I were in Silverton, NSW, chatting as our students explored the town. The weak afternoon light suddenly became dramatic and defined, so I asked Peter if I could take his portrait.

Duty bound

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.

Michelle Simmons, 2018

by Selina Ou

Archived media releases 2015

Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018

L. Gordon Darling AC CMG

31 August 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.

The world of Thea Proctor

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

The world of Thea Proctor was the National Portrait Gallery's second exhibition to follow the life of a single person, following Rarely Everage: The lives of Barry Humphries.

The bright-eyed Mariner

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

A new colonial portrait brings a zealous captain near.

Portrait of a Modernist

Magazine article by Dimity Goldie, 2003

The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.

Anna F. Walker

Anna Frances Walker (1830–1913), botanical artist and collector, was one of the thirteen children of Thomas Walker, a high-ranking colonial public servant, and his wife Anna Elizabeth, the daughter of merchant and landowner John Blaxland.

1 portrait in the collection

Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan (b. 1961) was born in Longford in northern Tasmania, the second youngest of the six children of Archie Flanagan, a primary school principal, and his wife Helen.

1 portrait in the collection

Talma Studios, Sydney

Magazine article by Barry York, 2018

Talma Studios opened in Sydney in March 1899 in a George Street premises next door to the GPO.

1 portrait in the collection

Star signs

Barry York charts the course from childhood request to autographed celebrity portrait anthology.

More cash than dash

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.

Alternative virtue

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.

Tracks in the sand

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses Quentin Jones's photograph of Australian author Tim Winton.

In a good paddock

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2011

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

NPPP 2009 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, 2015

Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2009 Prize.

William Charles Wentworth -The Australian Patriot

The Wentworths – Hidden in Plain Sight

Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.

Portrait of a patron

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

2023 Annual Appeal

In 2023 the Annual Appeal was focussed on a work by one of Australia's best loved and most successful portrait painters, Judy Cassab AO CBE, depicting model, entrepreneur and deportment icon, June Dally-Watkins OAM.

Lustre, held by a Groom, ca. 1762 by George Stubbs

Stubbs and the horse

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

One of the chief aims of George Stubbs, 1724–1806, the late Judy Egerton’s great 1984–85 exhibition at the Tate Gallery was to provide an eloquent rebuttal to Josiah Wedgwood’s famous remark of 1780: “Noboby suspects Mr Stubs [sic] of painting anything but horses & lions, or dogs & tigers.”

Portrait of Lady Eyre Williams (Jessie Gibbon)

Chance encounter

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.

Ms Anna Burke MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives 2015 by Jude Rae

Hired guns, bounty hunters and horse whisperers

Magazine article by Jude Rae, 2016

Jude Rae contemplates the portrait commission.

Promise Fulfilled

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

The life and achievements of Sir Edward Holden, who is represented in the portrait collection by a bust created by Leslie Bowles.

Mary (or Diana) Croker, mat woman, Colchester, 1823 by John Dempsey

Unknown drawer

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia by H.R.H. The Duke of Cornwall and York, May 9, 1901, 1903 by Tom Roberts

Empire records

Magazine article by Kylie Scroope, 2011

Celebrates the centenary of the first national art collection, the Historic Memorials Collection, housed at Australia's Parliament House.

20/20 launch speech

Archived media releases 2021

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

Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London

Announcing Shakespeare to Winehouse

24 November 2021

More than eighty treasures from the National Portrait Gallery London will travel to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from March 2022.

Poet of the Fleeting Moment

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2004

Mark Strizic's work crosses a broad spectrum of photographic fields including urban, industrial, commercial, and architectural photography.

Inditchenous beestes of New Olland

Magazine article by Gael Newton, 2017

A remarkable undated drawing by Edward Lear (1812–88) blends natural history and whimsy.

In and out of focus

Gael Newton looks at Australian photography, film and the sixties through the novel lens of Mark Strizic.

The God-shaped hole

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

Exploring the photographs of Martin Schoeller, Michael Desmond delves into the uneasy pact that exists between celebrity and the camera.

All dressed up

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?

Conduct becoming

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2017

Penelope Grist speaks to Bill Henson and Simone Young to discover the origins of the artist’s stunning photographic triptych.

Hide/Seek

Magazine article by David Ward, 2010

David Ward writes about the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington.

Goollabal (Rainbow Serpent), 2018 by Shirley Purdie

Memories

Magazine article by Barbara Blackman AO, 2003

The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.

All in the Family

In 2000, Barbara Blackman donated a portrait of her close friends - poet Judith Wright, her husband Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith - painted by Charles Blackman.

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.

You are who?

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2023

Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.

Illuminating history

Joanna Gilmour reflects on 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.

NPPP 2012 learning resource

Learning resource archive

Exploring select works from the NPPP 2012. For secondary students.

William Shakespeare, c. 1600-1610 associated with John Taylor

Take thy face hence

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.

Showing character

Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.

The Conciliation, 1840 by Benjamin Duterrau

The art of conciliation

Magazine article by Gareth Knapman, 2017

Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.

Paper weight

Joanna Gilmour delves into a collection display that celebrates the immediacy and potency of drawing as an art form in its own right.

Sydney Cove medallion, 1789 by Josiah Wedgwood

The medallion

In recent years I have become fascinated by the so-called Sydney Cove Medallion (1789), a work of art that bridges the 10,000-mile gap between the newly established penal settlement at Port Jackson and the beating heart of Enlightenment England.

200 Years of Portraiture

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2010

To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.

Subtle emotion

Christopher Chapman considers photographer Rozalind Drummond's portrait of author Nam Le.

Being Cate

Archived media releases 2016

A moving portrait of Cate Blanchett unfolds as an inspired pairing of medium and subject.

Provocative talks on Saturdays in September

29 August 2016

Join The Saturday Paper’s chief political correspondent, Karen Middleton, for A Month of Saturdays – afternoon conversations bringing current affairs experts to the Gallery for engaging, real-time discussions about the topics that matter.

A sketch for some portraits

Magazine article by Judith Pugh, 2005

Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.

Hard truths

Magazine article by Jennifer Higgie, 2022

Jennifer Higgie reveals how Alice Neel reinvigorated 20th century portraiture with her honest and perceptive depictions of the human experience.

Apollo's breath

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2016

Christopher Chapman delights in the intimacy of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography

Thousand mile stare

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2004

John Elliott talks about his photographic portrait practice, including his iconic image of Slim Dusty arm-in-arm with Dame Edna Everage.

Cover, first minute book of the Tasmanian Society of Natural History

Embrace your inner nerd

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

The southern winter has arrived. For people in the northern hemisphere (the majority of humanity) the idea of snow and ice, freezing mist and fog in June, potentially continuing through to August and beyond, encapsulates the topsy-turvidom of our southern continent.

The highest honour

Bringing eminent scientist Frank Fenner and artist Jude Rae together for the National Portrait Gallery commission was like matchmaking.

Little John of Colchester, a poor lunatic, c.1823 by John Dempsey

Dempsey's people

Those of you who are active in social media circles may be aware that through the past week I have unleashed a blitz on Facebook and Instagram in connection with our new winter exhibition Dempsey’s People: A Folio of British Street Portraits, 1824−1844.

Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and David R. L. Litchfield at Villa Favorita, Lugano, Switzerland, 1989 © Nicola Graydo

The Thyssen Art Macabre

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2015

Books seldom make me angry but this one did. At first, I was powerfully struck by the uncanny parallels that existed between the Mellons of Pittsburgh and the Thyssens of the Ruhr through the same period, essentially the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Untitled #21/09 (after Ricci, 1700; featuring Matthew Mitcham)

Getting bare

How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.

Wicked but Virtuous

Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.

Reflections

Magazine article by Lee Tulloch, 2011

All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War exhibition co-curators Dr Anne Sanders and Dr Christopher Chapman reflect on the evolution of the Gallery’s Anzac Centenary exhibition.

Self Portrait, Stuart Campbell by Stuart Campbell

The essence of you

Lee Tulloch remembers her great friend NIDA-trained actor turned photographer Stuart Campbell.

Facing Australia, Composite portrait: Facing St Lucia, 2003

Conflicting images

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.

The art of multiplicity

Magazine article by Meredith Hughes, 2019

Meredith Hughes explores a key Portrait Gallery work, emerging into the infinite iterations of identity.

Reveries

Magazine article by Helen Ennis, 2007

The exhibition Reveries: Photography and mortality is a powerful display which brings together images that depict the last phase of people's lives.

Hearts of Darkness

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2006

The National Portrait Gallery's acquisition of the portrait of Edward John Eyre by pioneering English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

Living landscape

Magazine article by Gillian Raymond, 2016

Gillian Raymond ponders landscapes as self-portraiture in Michael Taylor’s intimate expressionism.

The Philosophy of Teapots and Ducks

Magazine article by Gillian Raymond, 2005

Cartoonist Michael Leunig's insights into the human condition and current affairs have become famous Australia-wide.

Big bouquet of Blackmans

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.

A real Pratt

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

The death of a gentlewoman is shrouded in mystery, a well-liked governor finds love after sorrow, and two upright men become entangled in the historical record.

Writing on the Wall, 2019 Dr Christian Thompson AO

To arrive at hope

NPPP 2020 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

Penelope Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2020 Prize.

Regarding Henrys

Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.

Top shot that

Magazine article by Gideon Haigh, 2009

Gideon Haigh discusses portraits of Australian cricketers from the early 20th century

School portraits

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

Inga Walton sheds light on a portraiture collection usually only seen by students and teachers at Melbourne University.

Through blue eyes

Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.

History

About us

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

Seduce, Amuse, Entertain

NPPP 2007 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.

Seduce Amuse Entertain

Michael Desmond profiles a handful of the entrants in first National Photographic Portrait Prize and notes emerging themes and categories.

Mugshots

NPPP 2014 exhibition essay

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

The Art Lovers - Megan, 2013 by Gary Grealy

Everybody, look serious

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.

Christmas Island

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

Rehearsing Godot (Mullins as Lucky) 4.11.2013 by Nicholas Harding

Waiting for Godot

'Artist and actors, advancing spasmodically, find their rhythm together' writes Sarah Engledow.

Washington preview

Magazine article by Lauretta Morton, 2005

Ron Ramsey, former Director of Cultural Relations at the Embassy of Australia interviewed NPG Washington Director, Marc Pachter, about their building renovations.

Recollections of a sinologist sitter

Magazine article by Professor Stephen FitzGerald AO, 2016

Professor Stephen Fitzgerald, Australia’s first Ambassador to China, traces the historical course from sino-australian cultural engagement to a maturing Australian identity.

Vanity fair

Magazine article by Ashleigh Wadman, 2012

Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

Exhibition introduction

Magazine article by Diana Warnes, 2006

One night in the spring of 1970 in an old house in Whale Beach, north of Sydney, John Witzig, Albe Falzon and David Elfick put together the first issue of Tracks, playing Neil Young’s album Harvest over and over again as they pasted up galleys of type.

Mental as everything

Chris O'Doherty, also known as Reg Mombassa, is best-known for his Mambo imagery but he also paints a lot of self portraits.

Adam’s Prize Apples

Magazine article by Pamela Gerrish Nunn, 2016

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

Cachasunghia, Osage Warrior 1804–06 by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

Political profiles

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.

Peter Wilmoth, age 12, with copies of Our World 1974 Courtesy of the author

Paper, boy

Magazine article by Peter Wilmoth, 2016

Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.

In the galleries

Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.

Forest Creek, Mount Alexander Diggings, 1852 by S. T. Gill

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush

Magazine article by Lilly Koltun, 2004

Some years ago my colleague Andrea Wolk Rager and I spent several days in the darkened basement of a Rothschild Bank, inspecting every one of the nearly 700 autochromes created immediately before World War I by the youthful Lionel de Rothschild.

Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Marquis de Vaudreuil, ca.1753-55

Canadian identities

An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.

Sunset in the drawing room at Chesney Wold by Hablot Knight Brown

Portraiture in a Bleak House

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2017

It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.

Portrait of William Manning, c.1821 by Henry Bone

Of beef in burgundy

Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.

Thinking about architecture and portraiture

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Dr Christopher Chapman describes the experimental exhibition Portraits + Architecture

The Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen KGAK GCMG GCVO KBE QC, 2006 by Rick Amor

Prima facie

Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.

One hundred days at 7pm 2015 by Fiona McMonagle

Self-effacing

Magazine article by Michael Wardell, 2016

Michael Wardell samples the fare in the University of Queensland National Self-portrait Prize.

A Family Being Served with Tea, ca. 1745 by an unknown artist

A reflection on conversation pieces

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2021

There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.

Self-portrait in white jacket , 1901-02 Hugh Ramsay

Wunderkind lost

Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.

Yellow portrait (portrait of Alex Jelinek)

Fugue in Yellow

Magazine article by Roger Benjamin, 2015

Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.

Profile of a marriage

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2017

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the lives of Sir George Grey and his wife Eliza, the subjects of a pair of wax medallions in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

The mind's eye

Christopher Chapman takes a trip through the doors of perception, arriving at the junction of surrealism and psychoanalysis.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Australia’s great internationalists

Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.

The importance of being bearded

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2012

Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.

Friends and Acquaintances

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.

Unbuttoning uniforms

Magazine article by Sharon Peoples, 2017

Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.

Costantini's convictions

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2017

Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.

You beauty

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

Kristin Headlam

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Basil grew into a speckled beauty – a long-legged leaper and an exceptionally vocal dog, with a great register of sounds, ascending in shock value from a whimper to a growl to a bark to a yelp that’s a violation of the ears.

First-Class Marksman, 1946 by Sidney Nolan

Money for Myth

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2015

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

The Dissecting Room

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.

Flash mob

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Sarah Engledow trains her exacting lens on the nine photographs from 20/20.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

Patrick White at Centennial Park, 1979–1980

Listomania

Sarah Engledow describes the fall-out once Brett Whiteley stuck Patrick White’s list of his loves and hates onto his great portrait of the writer.

Waterfall in Australia, c. 1830 by Augustus Earle

Augustus serendipitous

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825.

Practising the Minuet (Miss Hilda Spong)

An actress and her fans

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

Dr. Sarah Engledow discovers the amazing life of Ms. Hilda Spong, little remembered star of the stage, who was captured in a portrait by Tom Roberts.

Naked nostalgia

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.

The artist and her family, c. 1854 by Martha Berkeley

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.

Portrait of a Pioneer , 1917
Violet Teague

Off her own bat

Magazine article by Richard Ormond, 2015

Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, 1885-86 by
John Singer Sargent

A feast of friends

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

Omai, Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, 1775-76

First encounters

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

Secure the shadow ere the substance fade

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2015

The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.

Trevor Jamieson, 2016 by Brett Canet-Gibson

The more things change...

NPPP 2017 exhibition essay

Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.

An evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

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

The shipwright's arms

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.

The personal and the historical

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Where do we draw a line between the personal and the historical? Although she died in Melbourne in 1975, when I was not quite eleven years old, I have the vividest memories of my maternal grandmother Helen Borthwick.

Helen Blaxland judging flower arrangements, c. 1940s photographer unknown

Petal to the mettle

Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.

The Bare story

Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be

Some prime ministers