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Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Sir George Coles CBE (1885–1977) was the founder of the retail concern GJ Coles and Coy.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Edgar Barton ‘EB’ Coles (1899-1981) was the longest-serving chief executive of the Coles retail group.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of Sir Edgar Coles 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a focus exhibition of captivating portraits by renowned artist Arthur Boyd, titled Mysterious eyes: Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945.
Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.
Arthur Vernon was the general secretary of the United Labourers’ Protective Society, a delegate to the Sydney Labour Council, a member of the Eight Hours committee, and a Labour alderman of the city for Cook ward.
1 portrait in the collection
Arthur Murch, artist, is best-known as a painter in a colourful cubistic style, but he was occupied with sculpture throughout his career.
8 portraits in the collection
Arthur Horner was born in Malvern, Victoria, and attended Sydney High School and the National Art School.
1 portrait in the collection
Arthur Summons (1935-2020), footballer, played fly-half in ten rugby union test matches for the Wallabies between 1956 and 1960 before joining rugby league's Western Suburbs Magpies in 1960.
1 portrait in the collection
Arthur Boyd AC OBE (1920-1999), painter, potter and printmaker, was amongst Australia's greatest painters.
14 portraits in the collection
Arthur Triggs (1868-1936), pastoralist and collector, is sometimes referred to as the 'Kidman of the wool industry'.
1 portrait in the collection
Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), first governor of New South Wales, began his career while a boy in London.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2014
Arthur William Burman was one of the nine children of photographer William Insull Burman (1814-1890), who came to Victoria in 1853.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Alfred Arthur Greenwood Hales (1860-1936), adventurer, writer and newspaper correspondent, left school and started writing short stories in his teens.
1 portrait in the collection
Patrick McCaughey explores a striking Boyd self portrait.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), army officer and hero, was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1828 to 1830.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Alan Boxer 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of an anonymous donor 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir Charles Mackerras 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
On loan from the Clark family
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Gift of Charles E. Jones and Kim Lloyd Jones 2019
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ronald A Walker 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Impressions: Painting light and life presents portraits by, and of, artists at the heart of Australian impressionism including Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin.
Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Eric Harding and Athol Hawke 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
John Allen Manton (1807–1864), Wesleyan minister, arrived in Australia in 1831.
1 portrait in the collection
William Insull Burman came to Victoria in 1853 and worked as a painter and decorator before establishing his own photography business in Carlton in about 1863.
1 portrait in the collection
An open house, recollections of my early life: extracts from the reminiscences of David Boyd.
If music be the food of love
Ria Murch (1918-2014), writer and muse, was brought up in King’s Cross and attended the Thosophist school in Mosman before acquiring secretarial skills at Miss Hales Business College.
1 portrait in the collection
This issue features Jude Rae, Arthur Boyd, Darren McDonald, John Singer Sargent, Tom Wills the 'inventor' of Australian Rules Football and more.
Canberran and modernist art collector Alan Boxer has generously bequeathed two works by artists Arthur Boyd and Jenny Sages to the National Portrait Gallery.
John Shortland (1739-1803), naval officer, was a member of a family of which six members were associated with the colonisation of Australia and New Zealand.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
John Perceval AO (1923-2000) was a painter and ceramic artist. Early on, along with Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker, he was part of a loose group of largely self-taught Australian artists, now known as the Angry Penguins, who rebelled against the conservatism of the art establishment.
10 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001
This article examines the portraits gifted to the National Portrait Gallery by Fairfax Holdings in 2003.
Dame Annie Florence Cardell-Oliver (1876-1965), politician, grew up in Melbourne before marrying a wool buyer and returning with him to England.
1 portrait in the collection
Lisa McCune (b. 1971) actor, made her stage debut at fifteen in a production of The Wizard of Oz in Perth.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Christopher Chapman looks at influences and insight in the formative years of Arthur Boyd.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Amandus Julius Fischer (1859-1948) began his art studies in Sydney before proceeding to the Westminster School of art in London, and the Académie Julian and the Atelier Colarossi in Paris.
1 portrait in the collection
George A Highland (1874-1954), theatrical producer, grew up in England, where, as a choirboy, he came to the attention of Arthur Sullivan.
1 portrait in the collection
Alfred Vincent began working for the Bulletin in 1896, taking over from the renowned Phil May, his idol, with whom he was often - inevitably - unfavourably compared.
1 portrait in the collection
Tim Burstall (1927-2004) set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
2 portraits in the collection
Experience the art of rock music; attend to the neglected aspects of Lord Kitchener's work; and say farewell to the inimitable Bob Ellis.
Joy Hester (1920-1960) was the only female member of the Angry Penguin movement, which included artists Tucker, Sydney Nolan and Arthur Boyd.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Karl Duldig (1902-1986) studied art in Vienna between 1923 to 1933, interrupted by his success in sport, first as a soccer international, then as a tennis player and finally as a table-tennis title holder.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Carl Cooper (1912-1966), ceramic decorator, contracted poliomyelitis in his twenties.
1 portrait in the collection
Ursula Hoff AO OBE (1909–2005) was a curator, art historian and academic.
1 portrait in the collection
Kenneth Rowell (1920-1999), painter, made his career in both the visual and the performing arts.
2 portraits in the collection
Rudy Komon (1908-1982) was an art dealer and gallery director. After working as a journalist in Czechoslovakia, where he served with the Czech resistance during the war, he emigrated to Sydney and opened an antique store.
3 portraits in the collection
Harold 'Hal' Hattam (1913-1994), doctor, artist and art collector, came to Australia from his native Scotland at the age of seven.
1 portrait in the collection
John Hunter (1737-1821), naval officer and governor, came to Sydney as second captain of the Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet.
3 portraits in the collection
Philip Gidley King (1758-1808), naval officer and governor, joined the navy in late 1770 and served in the East Indies and American waters.
1 portrait in the collection
Peter Allen (1944-1992) was born Peter Allen Woolnough in Tenterfield, NSW.
1 portrait in the collection
Haskins is known for his poetic combinations of images and this exhibition of 'extended' portraits builds on this approach.
Robert Henderson Croll (1869-1947), author, worked as a clerk in the Victorian public service for over 40 years, but is better remembered for his books and journalism.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Hattam family in memory of Hal and Kate Hattam 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gerard Vaughan 2001
Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729–1808), statesman, was educated at Oxford and entered parliament in 1761.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
David Davies began studying art at the School of Mines and Industries in his birthplace, Ballarat.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
William Buckley (1780-1856), known as 'the wild white man', was transported for life in 1802 for receiving stolen cloth.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
H. Walter Barnett (1862-1934) was a leading portrait photographer of the late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar periods.
12 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Peter Dombrovskis, photographer and environmental activist, was born of Latvian parents in a refugee camp in Wiesbaden at the end of World War 2.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Ian Potter Foundation 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Grietje Croll in memory of her late husband Robert Devereaux Croll and with the endorsement of his daughter Helen Croll 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Barbara Blackman (b. 1928) was only 15 when the ABC Weekly published one of her poems.
5 portraits in the collection
Jan Nelson was born in Melbourne. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1983 and has been exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia since that time including at the MCA, Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and the Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide.
On loan from the Garran family
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Deidre But-Husaim (b. 1959), based in Adelaide, South Australia, undertook her formative art study at the Adelaide Central School of Art, where she has since taught painting.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Walter Withers (1854-1914), painter, interior designer and teacher, trained at the Royal Academy in London before coming to Australia at the end of 1882.
1 portrait in the collection
Klaus Friedeberger (b. 1922) fled Germany for England at the age of sixteen, and the next year found himself on the Dunera bound for internment in Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
This exhibition focuses on exploring national and communal identity through sculptural production in Australia, from the early decades of settlement through to the present day
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Wes Walters (1928-2014), painter, studied architecture in Geelong and art at the Ballarat School of Mines before embarking on a successful career as a freelance commercial artist in 1950.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Nicolaas Van Der Waarden 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Patrick Ryan (d. 1990) and Tim Burstall set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015
Alexander George Mitchell (1911-1997), academic, studied English literature and language at the University of Sydney and the University of London before joining the English department of the University of Sydney, where he assumed the McCaughey Chair of Early English Literature and Language in 1947.
1 portrait in the collection
Captain Robert Clark Morgan (1798-1864), Christian mariner, whaler and diarist, entered the Royal Navy at the age of eleven, leaving at sixteen for the merchant marine and beginning a career in whaling, a pursuit he relished.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
An examination of the life and times of George Lambert through the gesture and pose in his self portrait.
Michael Desmond discusses the iconic picture of two Rugby League players which became known as 'The Gladiators'.
Joan Redshaw AM (1921-1994), medical practitioner, chose her career in opposition to her father, a judge, who thought the University of Sydney medical school was a hotbed of women’s activists and bluestockings.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.
From 1967 until 1981 Matthew Perceval lived and painted in France and during those years produced a large body of portrait paintings.
Hilda Spong (1875-1955), actress, came to Australia with her family when she was thirteen.
1 portrait in the collection
Harold Parker (1873-1962), sculptor, came to Brisbane with his English parents as a three-year old.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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
Charles Troedel (1835-1906), born in Hamburg, was working in Norway when he was headhunted by AW Schuhkrafft, a Melbourne printer who seeking European craftsmen.
1 portrait in the collection
Annie May Moore (1881-1931) was born in New Zealand and studied at the Elam School of Art and Design in Auckland.
4 portraits in the collection
James Robert M. Robertson (1844-1932), mining engineer and coal magnate, was the son of a Scottish surgeon and colliery owner, and qualified in medicine himself before opting for a career in mining.
1 portrait in the collection
An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.
William Hardy Wilson (1881-1955) - or Hardy Wilson, as he styled himself - is regarded as one of the most significant and visionary Australian architects of the twentieth century.
1 portrait in the collection
William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was Tory prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 to 1801, and of United Kingdom from 1804 to 1806.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of an anonymous donor 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
David Collins (1756–1810), lieutenant-governor, began his career in the British Navy, rising to the rank of captain before being returning to dry land and being placed on half-pay in late 1783.
1 portrait in the collection
Donald Friend (1915-1989), painter, writer and diarist, studied at the RAS and Dattilo-Rubbo’s school in Sydney before spending 1935 and 1936 at the Westminster School in London.
2 portraits in the collection
Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
Robert Neill arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Edinburgh in 1820 with his free-settler parents and two siblings.
1 portrait in the collection
Olegas Truchanas (1923-1972) was born in 1923 in Siauliai, Lithuania.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Tom Roberts (1856–1931), artist, came to Australia from England at the age of 13, but returned eight years later to study art in London.
12 portraits in the collection
Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lawrence Daws 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family, the Ian Potter Foundation and John Schaeffer AO 2009
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.
Herbert John Louis (Bert) Hinkler (1892-1933), aviator, worked with a photographer and in sugar mills before joining the Queensland Aero club and taking a correspondence course in mechanics.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Last night in Sydney, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled a newly commissioned portrait of Australian sporting legend Mark Ella AM.
English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.
Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (1821-1897), governor, attended the Royal Military Academy before being commissioned to the Royal Engineers in 1839.
1 portrait in the collection
Liverpool-born William Buelow Gould (1803-1853) had worked as a draftsman for the London printmaker, Rudolph Ackermann, and as a painter for a Staffordshire pottery before being transported to Van Diemen’s Land for theft in 1827.
1 portrait in the collection
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004
This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
Andrew Sayers AM (1957–2015) was inaugural Director of the National Portrait Gallery.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Peter Elliott AM (1926-2014) was an obstetrician, gynaecologist and gynaecological oncologist as well as a significant art collector and patron.
6 portraits in the collection
Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
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.
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Henry Baynton Somer ‘Jo’ Gullett AM MC (1914-1999), soldier, politician, ambassador, farmer and author, was the son of Sir Henry Gullett, who was one of the Australian official historians of the First World War.
1 portrait in the collection
Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), botanist, formed a boyhood passion for natural history which was encouraged at Ballitore School, County Kildare.
1 portrait in the collection
Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.
The bronze sculpture by Julie Edgar reflects through both the material and representation the determined and straight-forward nature of Brabham.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
3 portraits in the collection
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
4 portraits in the collection
As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.
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.
Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.
Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.
An exhibition at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington DC showcases the art of portraiture in Asia over two thousand years.
Studio: Australian Painters Photographed by R. Ian Lloyd presents 61 of some of Australia’s most respected and significant painters working in the studio environment.
Commissioned with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AO and Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018.
Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.
Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.
A pair of portraits by John Brack; Portrait of Kym Bonython and Portrait of Mr Bonython's speedway cap combine to create a quirky depiction of their subject.
The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.
Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Jozef Vissel 2015
Andrew Sayers feels the warmth in the paintings Matthew Perceval made while the sun shone in southern France.
The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.
Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.
Penelope Grist finds inspiration in pioneering New Zealand artist, Frances Hodgkins.
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.
Jenny Gall delves into Starstruck to celebrate some of Australian cinema’s iconic women.
Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.
Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie 1887 by Frederick Woodhouse Snr. is a portrait of James Scobie, well known jockey and eminent horse trainer.
Christopher Chapman delights in the intimacy of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography
The Portrait Gallery's paintings of two poets, Les Murray and Peter Porter, demonstrate two very different artists' responses to the challenge of representing more than usually sensitive and imaginative men.
An interview with the photographer.
Jean Appleton’s 1965 self portrait makes a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection writes Joanna Gilmour.
Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
Gideon Haigh discusses portraits of Australian cricketers from the early 20th century
As the National Portrait Gallery opens its exhibition of portrait and figurative work by veteran photographer Sam Haskins, the artist reflects on the highlights of his fifty-year career so far.
Michael Desmond discusses Fred Williams' portraits of friends, artist Clifton Pugh, David Aspden and writer Stephen Murray-Smith, and the stylistic connections between his portraits and landscapes.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.
Diana Warnes explores the lives of Hal and Katherine 'Kate' Hattam through their portraits painted by Fred Williams and Clifton Pugh.
Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.
Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.
Bess Norriss Tait created miniature watercolour portraits full of character and life.
Karen Quinlan considers the case of Agnes Goodsir, whose low profile in Australia belies her overseas acclaim.
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.
Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.
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.
Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.
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.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
Ensconced and meditative in crisp Tasmania, Joanna Gilmour pays tribute to passionate green advocate and photographer Olegas Truchanas.
A focus on Indigenous-European relationships underpins Facing New Worlds. By Kate Fullagar.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.
Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.
Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.
The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.
Dr. Sarah Engledow tells the story of Australia's first Federal statistician, Sir George Knibbs.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
Jane Raffan investigates auction sales of self portraits nationally and internationally.
Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.
Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.
Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.
Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.
Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.