Photographer Bill Henson describes creating his three part portrait of Simone Young.
Bill Henson was only 19 when his photographs were first exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in his home city of Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds from the Farrell Family Foundation and the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002
Penelope Grist speaks to Bill Henson and Simone Young to discover the origins of the artist’s stunning photographic triptych.
Bill May (1915-1993), luthier, completed an apprenticeship in cabinetmaking and taught woodwork before founding Mayton Stringed Instruments and Repairs in the early 1940s.
1 portrait in the collection
Bill Neidjie AO (c. 1913-2002), a Gagadju man, was the traditional custodian of the Kakadu area of the Northern Territory and spent most of his childhood in this region.
1 portrait in the collection
The Hon Bill Hayden was MHR (ALP) for the federal seat of Oxley from 1961-88 and Leader of Opposition from 1977-83.
1 portrait in the collection
Bill McAuley began his career as a photographer for newspapers and magazines in Melbourne in 1969.
9 portraits in the collection
Bill Hunter (1940-2011), actor, spent five decades on Australian television and cinema screens.
1 portrait in the collection
Bill Leak (1956-2017), portrait painter and caricaturist, trained at the Julian Ashton art school in the mid-1970s, and began his career painting landscapes.
7 portraits in the collection
Bill Robertson CBE MC (1917-2011), public servant, was educated at Melbourne Grammar and Oxford, where he graduated from the school of Natural Philosophy in 1939.
1 portrait in the collection
Bill Collins OAM (1934-2019), television movie host and critic, was a high school English teacher and lecturer at teachers’ college before beginning a record 55-year stint on Australian television.
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 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Joan Collins and the Todd-Wilson family in memory of Bill Collins 2019
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard and Birgit Woolcott 2007
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Australian Securities Exchange 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 1999
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of the artist 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002
A portrait story that explores the life and times of legendary Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Magda Keaney talks with Bill Leak about his bold new portrait of Robert Hughes in the National Portrait Gallery collection.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
From Brandt's early work that documents fixed social contrasts of pre-World War II life in Britain to his later experimentation with a surreal style, this exhibition spans 50 years of Brandt's far reaching career in an extensive assemblage of 155 vintage gelatin silver prints from the Bill Brandt Archive in London.
Paul Cézanne, Bill Henson and Simone Young, Australian cinema’s iconic women, and feminist portraits by Kate Just.
Roslyn Oxley AM, gallerist and art dealer, was born Roslyn Walton, the daughter of John Walton, owner of the department store Waltons.
1 portrait in the collection
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
Bruce Pollard (b. 1936), gallerist, established the Pinocotheca Gallery in a St Kilda mansion in 1967, and relocated it to an old hat factory in Richmond in 1970.
1 portrait in the collection
Former NPG Director Andrew Sayers discusses the art of commissioning portraits.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Louise Hearman (b. 1963), graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1984 and has built her visual arts career over the decades since.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Commissioned with funds provided by Peter Weiss AO 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
The Rev. Fred Nile MLC (b. 1934) Leader of the Christian Democratic Party was born and raised in King's Cross, Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Richard Tognetti AO (b. 1965), violinist, conductor and composer, trained with William Primrose in Wollongong and Alice Waten in Sydney before undertaking further studies with Igor Ozim in Switzerland.
2 portraits in the collection
Bill Beach (1850-1935), sculler, came to New South Wales as a young boy with his English parents, who settled at Albion Park, NSW.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers celebrates the support given to the Gallery by Gordon and Marilyn Darling.
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.
Esther Erlich, a Melbourne-based painter, has been exhibiting since the early 1980s, often with the Libby Edwards Galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and the Barry Newton Gallery in Adelaide.
3 portraits in the collection
Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples, third son of Sir Nathaniel Staples, Bt, was born in Northern Ireland, educated in Belgium, and studied architecture and art in Louvain, Dresden, Paris and London.
1 portrait in the collection
Claude Charlick (life dates unknown), businessman, was managing director of the Adelaide firm Charlick Ltd for nearly forty years.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
William Beckwith (Bill) McInnes studied at the NGV School and later undertook study tours of Europe and the UK.
5 portraits in the collection
Alfred Deakin (1856-1919), Australia's second, fifth and seventh Prime Minister, was central to the Federation movement.
1 portrait in the collection
Hayward 'Bill' Veal was born in Eaglemont, Victoria, and studied in Melbourne with AD Colquhoun and Max Meldrum between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.
1 portrait in the collection
Karin Catt grew up in Newcastle, where she began taking photographs of touring bands while a schoolgirl, and also in London and Hong Kong.
9 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ronald A Walker 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Australian photographer Karin Catt has photographed world leaders, a host of rock stars and Oscar-winning compatriots Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, and Cate Blanchett.
George Garrard ARA, born in London, trained under the animal painter Sawrey Gilpin and enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools at the end of 1778.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Richard Edward O'Connor (1851-1912), barrister and judge, was raised and educated in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Koiki (Eddie) Mabo (1937-1992) was born and lived in the Torres Strait until 1959 when he moved to the mainland.
1 portrait in the collection
Mungo MacCallum (1941–2020) was one of Australia's best-known political journalists.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Dr Justin Garrick and Ms Dharini Ganesan Rasu, Mr Dino Nikias & Mrs Dimitra Nikias, Mr Jim Windeyer, Ms Claudia Hyles, Mrs Sotiria Liangis OAM and Mr John Liangis, Justice Mary Finn, Mr Bill Farmer AO and Mrs Elaine Farmer, Mr Tim Efkarpidis, Mr Bob Nattey and Mrs Charlotte Nattey, Ms Jennifer Bott AO, Mr Keith Bradley, Dr Sam Whittle and Mrs Heather Whittle 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of Dr J J C Bradfield 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Phyllis Shillito (1895-1980), designer and teacher, grew up in Yorkshire and trained and taught at Halifax Technical School before moving to teach design, craft and principles of art at Winchester School of Art and Liverpool City School of Art.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Ian Potter Foundation 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Josonia Palaitis trained as an art teacher in Sydney in the early 1970s, and experimented with diverse painting styles before settling into the photorealist mode for which she became best known.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Karen McLeod Adair and Anthony Adair 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003
Michael Boddy (1934–2014), writer and actor, was born in England and educated at Cambridge before arriving in Australia as a 'ten quid migrant' in 1960.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Imelda Roche AO (b. 1934), with husband Bill, introduced the Nutri-Metics skin care range to Australia in 1968.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
William Edward (Bill) Harney (1895–1962), bushman and raconteur, spent his childhood in Charters Towers and Cairns and started working as a stockman and boundary rider at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned 2003
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
Robert James Lee (Bob) Hawke (1929-2019) moved with his family from South Australia to Perth in 1939.
9 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.
Hilda Spong (1875-1955), actress, came to Australia with her family when she was thirteen.
1 portrait in the collection
The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Coles Myer Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.
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
Mark Haworth-Booth explains why Bill Brandt is one of the most important British photographers of the Twentieth Century.
In 1988 philanthropists Gordon and Marilyn Darling decided to make an Australian portrait gallery a reality, overseeing the development of the 1992 touring exhibition Uncommon Australians.
Vida Goldstein (1869-1949), activist, was the daughter of energetic social reformers.
1 portrait in the collection
Hardtmuth Lahm (1912-1981), commercial artist and cartoonist, came to Australia from Estonia as a sixteen-year-old.
1 portrait in the collection
John Bradfield (1867-1943), engineer, was a key figure in the development of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and inner city transport network.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell KG GCMG PC (1792 –1878) was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841 and served twice as Prime Minister of Great Britain, in 1846-1852 and 1865-1866.
1 portrait in the collection
Binem (Bill) Grunstein (1921-2013), garment manufacturer and artist, escaped the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941, having seen his parents and most of his family members die of typhus or disappear.
1 portrait in the collection
The votes are in and the National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce The Honourable Bob Hawke savouring a strawberry milkshake by Harold David is the people’s choice for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018.
Celebrate the Gallery’s 20th birthday summer with Electric! Portraits that pop! The collection exhibition features a mix of bright, bold and colourful paintings, prints and photographs, and buoyant video portraits.
Scott Redford discusses his dynamic portrait commission of motorcycling champion and 2008 Young Australian of the Year Casey Stoner.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Exploring the photographs of Martin Schoeller, Michael Desmond delves into the uneasy pact that exists between celebrity and the camera.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Robert Dessaix 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018
Rosalie Kunoth Monks AM (1937-), indigenous welfare campaigner and elder and former actress and nun, was born at Utopia Cattle Station in the Northern Territory, the daughter of Allan Kunoth and his wife Ruby, a woman of the Ngarla people, Anmatjere tribe.
1 portrait in the collection
Nicholas Harding: 28 portraits features paintings of Robert Drewe, John Bell and Hugo Weaving alongside gorgeously coloured recent oil portraits, delicate gouaches and bold ink and charcoal drawings.
Adrian Rawlins (1939-2001), poet, performer and promoter, grew up in a Jewish household in Caulfield and St Kilda.
1 portrait in the collection
Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine.
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.
Millicent Fanny Preston Stanley (1883–1955), politician and feminist, was born Millicent Stanley in Sydney in 1883, the daughter of a grocer named Augustine Stanley and his wife Frances (née Preston).
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
Christopher Chapman examines the battle of glamour vs. grunge which played out in the fashion and advertising of the 1990s.
Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.
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.
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.
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.
Michael Desmond explores the life of ballerina Irina Baranova through the portrait by Australian artist Jenny Sages.
How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be
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.
A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.
Magda Keaney talks with Montalbetti+Campbell about their photographic portrait of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.
Australian photographer Karin Catt has shot across the spectrum of celebrity, her subjects including rock stars, world leaders and actors.
Bruce Petty's animated self portrait captures a life's journey compressed into a few minutes.
Celebrates the centenary of the first national art collection, the Historic Memorials Collection, housed at Australia's Parliament House.
The Gallery protects your privacy, including as a result of your interaction with our website
Leo Schofield introduces the exhibition, Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores.
Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.
Aimee Board chats to emerging photographer Charles Dennington.
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.
Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.
Australia's former Cultural Attache to the USA, Ron Ramsey, describes the mood at the opening week of the revitalised American National Portrait Gallery.
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.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Pamela Gerrish Nunn explores New Zealand’s premium award for portraiture.
Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.
Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.
Dr Christopher Chapman describes the experimental exhibition Portraits + Architecture
Sir William Dobell painted the portraits of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones and Sir Hudson Fysh, who did much to promote the image of Australia in this country and abroad.
Meredith Hughes explores a key Portrait Gallery work, emerging into the infinite iterations of identity.
Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.
Vanity Fair Editor David Friend describes how the rebirth of the magazine sated our desire for access into the lives of celebrities and set the standard for the new era of portrait photography.
It’s a matter beyond dispute that in the entire history of Australian art, it’s Noel McKenna who’s painted the liveliest rendition of the head of a Chihuahua.
A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.
Over the years the young Nicholas Harding got his hands on various mice and guinea pigs, but they served mainly to illustrate the concept of mortality.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.
Dr Sarah Engledow puts four gifts to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection in context.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.
