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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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Bruce Armstrong (1957-2024) was a sculptor, painter, printer and charcoal artist.
2 portraits in the collection
Bruce Dawe AO (1930-2020), poet and teacher, was born in Fitzroy and worked as a labourer, clerk, sawmill hand, farmhand and postman before joining the RAAF in 1959.
1 portrait in the collection
Bruce Ruxton AM OBE (1926-2011) was the outspoken Victorian President of the Returned Services League from 1979.
1 portrait in the collection
Bruce Postle began his photojournalism career at Queensland Country Life and the Brisbane Courier Mail.
6 portraits in the collection
Bruce Weber, born 1946, is an internationally renowned American fashion photographer.
1 portrait in the collection
Bruce Beresford (b. 1940), director, made his first film while an undergraduate at the University of Sydney in the early 1960s.
2 portraits in the collection
Bruce Spence (b. 1945), actor, made his film debut in the title role of Tim Burstall's Stork (1971), its title relating neatly, if coincidentally, to his 2.01m frame.
1 portrait in the collection
Bruce Petty (1929-2023), political cartoonist, grew up in Melbourne and as a young man took night classes in art at RMIT.
1 portrait in the collection
The Seekers, folk music band, formed in 1962 when jazz singer Judith Durham met Athol Guy, who sang and played bass in a folk trio with Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger.
3 portraits in the collection
Commissioned 2008
Sandra Bruce explores a new acquisition that has within it a story of interconnectivities in the Australian art world.
Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.
Stanley Bruce (1883-1967) was Prime Minister from 1923 to 1929 and Australia's High Commissioner in London from 1933 to 1945.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Bruno Grollo 1999
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. 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
Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Purchased with the assistance of Alan Dodge AM 2009
Bruce Petty's animated self portrait captures a life's journey compressed into a few minutes.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Reconnect and reflect with our new major exhibition, Australian Love Stories (in real life!) as we explore love, affection and connection in all its guises.
Sandra Bruce chats with seven-time NPPP finalist Chris Budgeon about photography, guitars and representing the human story.
Gift of the artist 2000
A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Purchased 2006
Gift of Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Purchased 2022
The People's Choice Award for 2023 went to KAHA, 2022 by Bruce Agnew.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery, Cadel Evans, Stuart O'Grady, Robbie McEwen, Casey Stoner, Bruce Petty and more.
Ralph Barton, American cartoonist and caricaturist, produced a body of work that epitomises American high life in the 1920s.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
When Michael Riley photographed Kristina Nehm several times in the 1980s she was a dancer with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in Glebe.
2 portraits in the collection
An interview with photographer Harry Borden about his portrait of Michael Hutchence.
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.
The late Australian photographer Stuart Campbell produced superb photographs of Australian actors of stage and screen.
A dynamic panel discussion that interrogates some of the themes revealed in Living Memory.
The mane thing is trust
The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.
Purchased 2013
Purchased 2013
Purchased with the assistance of funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2014
Alex Jelinek (1925–2007), architect and designer, graduated from the technical building school of Hradec Králové, near Prague, during World War II.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Gift of an anonymous donor 2007
Recorded 2013
Pamela MacFarlane was born in Dunedin, NZ and completed a Master's degree in Zoology at the University of Otago in the 1940s.
1 portrait in the collection
Christopher Chapman examines the battle of glamour vs. grunge which played out in the fashion and advertising of the 1990s.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and James Bryans 2015. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
George Rayner Hoff (1894-1937), sculptor, was born in England and trained at the Royal College of Art, London.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2001
Herbert 'Bert' Flugelman, sculptor, painter and lecturer, came to Australia from his native Vienna in 1938, aged fifteen.
1 portrait in the collection
Bruce Gyngell (1929–2000) presided over the first commercial television transmission in Australia, launching the medium here with the now famous phrase: 'Good evening, and welcome to television'.
1 portrait in the collection
Nelson Illingworth trained in sculpture in England and worked as a modeller at the Royal Doulton potteries for nine years before moving to Australia.
3 portraits in the collection
Hugh Ramsay, the fashion of Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson, Peter Wegner's centenarian series, John and Elizabeth Gould's family connections, Karen Quinlan's top five portraits and more.
Gift of the artist 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The Huxleys, National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces, Jennifer Higgie on portraits of women by women, Tamara Dean, Bangarra, Glynis Jones on fashion photographers, and NPG/NGV collaboration.
Brian Cadd (b. 1946), singer/songwriter, had been a member of 1960s Melbourne band The Groop before forming Axiom, the band for which he wrote the hits 'Arkansas Grass' and 'A Little Ray of Sunshine' at the dawn of the 1970s.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
Purchased 2006
The exhibition begins with Barry's childhood in Camberwell, Melbourne and chronicles his days as a struggling actor in Australia and England, his creation of characters including Barry McKenzie, Dame Edna Everage, Sandy Stone and Sir Les Patterson
William Yang on his autobiographical self portraits, David Parker's 1970s and 80s Melbourne music photographs, seven-time NPPP finalist Chris Budgeon, and Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis.
Little Darlings is for primary and secondary students, with four separate categories across Kindergarten to Year 12. Responding to the theme ‘Me and my place’, students painted, drew, photographed, printed or combined all of these to make their portrait.
Pixie O’Harris MBE (1903–1991), author and illustrator, was born Rona Olive Harris in Cardiff, one of the eight children of painter, George Frederick Harris.
1 portrait in the collection
Barbara Tribe (1913–2000), artist, is one of Australia's most significant sculptors.
4 portraits in the collection
Herbert Benjamin George Larkin CBE (c. 1871- 1944), shipping administrator, came to Australia from England and joined the office of the Australian Steam Navigation Company.
1 portrait in the collection
Nicholas Harding describes his enduring fascination with drawing and painting people.
Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine.
Actor, presenter and broadcaster Noni Hazlehurst AM (b. 1953) studied drama at Flinders University in South Australia, and after graduating gained roles in the television cop shows Division 4, Homicide and Matlock Police.
2 portraits in the collection
Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.
Born: 1961, Hastings, New Zealand
Works: Brisbane
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
The Seekers, folk music band, formed in 1962 when jazz singer Judith Durham met Athol Guy, who sang and played bass in a folk trio with Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger.
3 portraits in the collection
The Seekers, folk music band, formed in 1962 when jazz singer Judith Durham met Athol Guy, who sang and played bass in a folk trio with Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger.
3 portraits in the collection
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.
Michael Kimmelman, Chief Art Critic of The New York Times and author of Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere, presented the National Portrait Gallery Third Anniversary Lecture on 2 March 2002. He was generously brought to Australia by the Gordon Darling Foundation and Qantas.
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
The Seekers formed in Melbourne in 1962 when jazz singer Judith Durham met Athol Guy, who was in a folk trio with Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger.
3 portraits in the collection
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.
Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s
Barry Humphries AO CBE (1934–2023), actor, writer and artist, was the world's all-time most successful solo theatrical performer.
12 portraits in the collection
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
Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.
Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.
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.
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.
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
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.
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
Esther Erlich’s portrait of Lady McMahon.
In this major new exhibition marking the National Portrait Gallery’s third decade, 23 Australian artists and collectives have been invited to create portraits without constraints or boundaries.
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.
Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
Angus Trumble gazes at the once bright star of photographer Ruth Hollick.
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.
In 2022 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Mayatjara by Robert Fielding, a series of 24 photographs of Elders of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara community.
Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.
The Australian public was invited in 2008 to vote for their favourite Australian. After the votes were tallied an exhibition of the top-ten Popular Australians and the top-twenty unsung heroes was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery.
Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.
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.
Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
Tegan McAuley looks at the evolution of video portraiture.
Penelope Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2020 Prize.
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.
Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.
Scott Redford discusses his dynamic portrait commission of motorcycling champion and 2008 Young Australian of the Year Casey Stoner.
Projecting the splendour of the empire, and the resolve of its subjects, the bust of William Birdwood keeps a stiff upper lip in the National Portrait Gallery.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
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.
Krysia Kitch celebrates Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
Sarah Engledow picks some favourites from a decade of the National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Joanna Gilmour profiles the life and times of the shutter sisters May and Mina Moore.
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.
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.
Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.
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.
Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.