Search / bryan brown

Bryan Brown, 2008

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown, 2006 (printed 2020)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

A quiet moment

As Bryan Westwood’s portrait of Brian Dunlop hangs adjacent to Brian Dunlop’s portrait of the philanthropist Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, we see the artist of one work as the subject of the other. 

Another painter in the studio: Tim Storrier, 1982

Purchased 2012

Sir Ian McLennan, c. 1978

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Ian Potter, 1973

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Primrose Potter 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Portrait of Brian Dunlop, c. 1972

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

James Oswald Fairfax, c. 1991

Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sketch for portrait of Justin O'Brien, 1980

Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 2002

Sketch for portrait of Bart Cummings, 1986

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

First study for portrait of Malcolm Fraser, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Sir Vincent Fairfax, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Warwick Fairfax, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

A moment, 2016

Stockyards, 2011

Jaye

Bob Brown at his home in Liffey, 1988 (printed 2013)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Helga Leunig 2013

Dr Brown and Green Old Time Waltz, 1983

Gift of the Estate of Harold Thornton 2009

L.J. Brown, 1955

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Marion McBeath Harper 2019

A look I’ve never seen before, 2014

Joseph Brown, 1980

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Dr Joseph Brown with Two Typists, 1996

Gift of the artist 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Bob Brown

Bob Brown discusses the events that occurred during the Franklin River campaign as depicted in his portrait by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.

Litja Brown, 2021

Purchased with funds provided by the Annual Appeal for Contemporary Australian Photography 2022

Reverend George Brown DD, 1905

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Nancy Joyce 2014

Will Dyson, c. 1931

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

William Beckwith McInnes, n.d.

Purchased 1999

Robert Brown, 1850

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Mike Brown and Liz Land in Kitchen, 1993

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004

Where the wild things are

Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.

Robert Brown, c. 1835

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

Lord Casey, 1938

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Edward John Eyre, Late Governor of Jamaica, 1867

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Karen McLeod Adair and Anthony Adair 2003

Her Majesty Mrs Brown

Join us this Mother’s Day for a screening of Her Majesty Mrs Brown featuring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly.

Californian clinch in the ‘Australian’ outback

Long-term love scene

Megan Wilding as Blackie Blackie Brown: Traditional Owner of Death, 2019

Christine Audrey Pecket painting 'Self Portrait in a Brown Coat at the Sydney Technical College', 1937

Gift of Suzanne Playfoot 2023

Adrian Brown

An interview with the photographer.

Aretha Brown

Gumbaynggirr artist Aretha Brown talks street art, collaboration and ghost stories with First Nations Curator and Meriam woman, Rebecca Ray.

Elliot Brown

This portrait is called Jaye and it's a photo of my friend. She's a member of the Multicultural Society in Geraldton.

Peter Brown

Self Portrait in a Brown Coat, 1936

Purchased 2020

Cousins, 2013

David Brown Dignam [and] George Barrington drawn from the life, 1777

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

Unboxed

Sandra Bruce explores a new acquisition that has within it a story of interconnectivities in the Australian art world.

Henry Parkes, 1900

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (full-length study), 2005

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

Preparatory study of Tom Hughes, 2003

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Arthur Boyd, c. 1982

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Portrait 34

This issue features Australian cricketers, surfing legend Isabel Letham, Christos Tsiolkas, Bob Brown's portrait by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton, James Angus, virtual portraits and more.

Idle Hours

Idle hours is an exhibition of luxurious beauty. Paintings, prints and drawings represent subjects in quiet moods and situations arranged according to the time of day they depict - reading, drawing, snoozing, bathing, sewing, gardening, sitting, looking, making love and spending tranquil time with companions. Works in the exhibition range from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.

J.H. Roy Rousel, 1915

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

JH Roy Rousel, 1915

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Banksia and grevillea

Portraits can render honour to remarkable men and women, but there are other ways.

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

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 69

In conversation with Aretha Brown, Pieter Roelofs on Vermeer, humanoid robots, the nationwide search for Archibald portraits, and 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.

Nothing to hide, 2006

Ann Mary Windeyer, 1847

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Joanna Russell Maher (née Windeyer) 2018

Australian Love Stories

A major new exhibition celebrating love in all its guises. Opening 20 March 2021.

Harriet Schwarzrock: spaces between movement and stillness

To celebrate the new exhibition Australian Love Stories, renowned Australian glass artist Harriet Schwarzrock has been commissioned to make a large-scale installation reflecting on the role the heart plays as our emotional centre.

Lindy (No. 2 of Robert, Lindy, Grant)

Humour’s warm refuge

Angus Trumble pays tribute to John Clarke.

The Legend of Ruby and Archie

A bond in song

Jack Charles

Recorded 2022

2020 Annual Appeal

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

The soul surfer’s manifesto

Barrels, bliss and brotherhood

Of Kings and men

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

Mr and Mrs Horace Keats in the "Christopher Brennan Cycle", 1945

Gift of Anne and Brennan Keats 2009

National Youth Self Portrait Prize

At the end of 2007 the National Portrait Gallery launched the inaugural National Youth Self Portrait Prize and artists aged between eighteen and twenty-five were invited to submit self portraits using a variety of media including drawing, painting, printmaking and traditional or digital photography.

Vanity Fair Portraits

Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine.

Maria Windeyer, c. 1865-1868

Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018

Sir Zelman Cowen, 2000

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Marc Besen AO and Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2000

Sketches and sermons

Jessica Smith looks at the 'fetching' portrait of Tasmania's first Anglican Bishop, Francis Russell Nixon by George Richmond

My Favourite Australian

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

Studio

Studio: Australian Painters Photographed by R

The Fairfax Gift

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

The spirit of the gift

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

Annual Appeal

Billy Hughes bottle stopper, 1911-1921

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

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.

2022 Annual Appeal

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.

Written in Water

Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.

Arthur Boyd Portraits

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

Sitter still

Jaynie Anderson reflects on her experience as sitter for Reshid Bey’s 1962 portrait.

So Fine

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.

Australians in Hollywood

Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval, 1985

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2016

Missing Persons

Desperately seeking Woolner medallions

Empire records

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

National Photographic Portrait Prize 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.

Arcadia (Wayne Lynch and Bob McTavish), 1969 (reprinted 2011)

Gift of the artist 2011

Tim Fairfax, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018

To Look Within

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

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.

Melanie Faith Dove

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.

Sideshow Alley

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.

Krystal Seigerman

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.

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

Jude Rae

Jude Rae’s high reputation rests on her austere, cerebral still lifes of gas canisters, electric jugs and jars, which she groups and rearranges for paintings that catch their difficult curves and reflections. Her self-portrait’s likewise thoughtfully composed.

Primed

Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.

Alter ego

Tom Fryer surveys the twentieth-century architectural project, and finds representation and the portrait were integral elements.

Giving a dam

Ensconced and meditative in crisp Tasmania, Joanna Gilmour pays tribute to passionate green advocate and photographer Olegas Truchanas.

Support Crew

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

The Vanity model

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.

Graeme Drendel

I like talking about Drendel’s pictures as if they expressed dreams of my own.

Of human clay

The first collaborative commission has arrived. It's a self portrait, it's ceramic and it's from Hermannsburg.

Architecture

Natural light and human proportions – the design by Johnson Pilton Walker

Queen Victoria

Last Sunday I had the privilege of appearing at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in conversation with Julia Baird. The subject of our session was Julia’s recent biography, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.

A bear of great substance

Just in time for Christmas, Angus reflects on the most special present he has ever received.

Friends and Acquaintances

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

Roam alone

Jon Muir, adventurer and Portrait Gallery Collection subject, really knows about isolation.

Pre-Raphaelite Profile

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

Lovers of light

Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.

The 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize

Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Inditchenous beestes of New Olland

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

The intellectual larrikin

Barrie Cassidy pays textured tribute to the inimitable Bob Hawke.

My Favourite Australian

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.

Memories

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

Ngarranggarni

The third row of paintings come from Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).

Movement is my radar

Michael Desmond charts the path of portraiture, arriving at Julian Opie’s digital realm.

Pen power

Politics and personae in the portraiture of TextaQueen by Jane Raffan.

NPPP 2012 learning resource

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

Heartfelt

The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.

The more things change...

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

Earth to earth

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses the recent gift of works by David Campbell.

School portraits

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

Living landscape

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

Melbourne experience

Diana Warnes explores the lives of Hal and Katherine 'Kate' Hattam through their portraits painted by Fred Williams and Clifton Pugh.

The National Portrait Gallery's 20th Anniversary

Last month we marked the twentieth anniversary of the formal establishment of the National Portrait Gallery, the tenth of the opening of our signature building, and the fifth of our having become a statutory authority under Commonwealth legislation.

Star signs

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

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

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.

Heroine knits

‘Dear Kate Just – I’m your feminist fan’. Interview by Sophia Cai.

Air wear

Aviation carried women’s roles in society to greater heights – fashion followed suit.

Ken Done

With a mum who was married to a tradie, you’d think it a fair chance that the baby Jesus would have grown up with a dog in the house.

The stately lotus

I spent much of my summer holiday at D’Omah, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta. Lotus and waterlilies sprout in extraordinary profusion in artful ponds amid palms and deep scarlet ginger flowers.

Portrait Donors

Hump days

Jessica Bolton navigates the parallel tracks documenting Robyn Davidson’s astonishing journey.

A man of superior attainments

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

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

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

The alchemist’s profile

John Zubrzycki meets Australian paint pioneer Jim Cobb.

Missionary positions

Stella Ramage on Father McHardy’s Bougainville portraiture.

Fugue in Yellow

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

Profile of a marriage

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.

It's a Mora!

Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.  

20 20

Sarah Engledow picks some favourites from a decade of the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Splendid, many-splendoured

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

Women make history

Jennifer Higgie uncovers the intriguing stories behind portraits of women by women in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.

Hard truths

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

Beguiling impressions

Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.

Big bouquet of Blackmans

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

Kristin Headlam

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.

Out of the shadows

Joanna Gilmour profiles the life and times of the shutter sisters May and Mina Moore.

Fiona McMonagle

Fiona aims to create a dangerous situation with a flood of water on the paper, forcing each work to the point where it can fail, and then rescuing it. 

Lucy Culliton

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.

Petal to the mettle

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

A spectral sentience

Aimee Board reveals method, motivation and mortality in the portraiture of Rod McNicol.

Man of war

Tedi Bills talks to George Gittoes about canvassing conflict.

An actress and her fans

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.

Through thick and thin

Sarah Engledow likes the manifold mediums of Nicholas Harding’s portraiture.

A real Pratt

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.

Portraiture in a Bleak House

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.

Everybody, look serious

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

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.