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Weightlifter Caroline Pileggi (b. 1977) represented Australia at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and went on to win three medals - a gold and two silvers - at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the Women's Over-75kg class.

2 portraits in the collection

Caroline Jones AO

Caroline Jones AO (1938–2022), journalist and broadcaster, joined the ABC in 1963 and five years later became Australia's first female current affairs reporter when she began working on This Day Tonight.

2 portraits in the collection

Caroline Chisholm

Caroline Chisholm (1808–1877), philanthropist and political agitator, spent almost two decades working to improve conditions for immigrants to Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Caroline Jones, 1978

David Campbell

Gift of Elizabeth Campbell-MacKenzie on behalf of the family of David Campbell 2012

Caroline Jones, 2009

Salvatore Zofrea OAM

Portrait, engraving on paper

Gift of the artist 2009

Portrait of Caroline Chisholm, c. 1851

an unknown artist

Purchased 2001

Caroline Chisholm, 1853

J B. Hunt after Antoine François Jean Claudet

Portrait, steel engraving on paper

Purchased 2015

Athletes (Sally Robbins, Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Caroline Pileggi, Lorian Graham, Sharon Anyos)

Athletes (Sally Robbins, Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Caroline Pileggi, Lorian Graham, Sharon Anyos), 2005-2006

Toni Wilkinson

Portrait, 5 inkjet prints

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006

Aborigines at Oyster Cove, Tasmania, 1858 (printed 1890s)

Francis Nixon

Portrait, glass plate negative

Purchased 2011

Good, bad and the ugly

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.

MacKenzie family silhouette, 1846

Samuel Metford

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

Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007

Caroline Barton, 2006

by Jim Rolon

Image

Caroline Zilinsky and John Feitelson

Vox pops

John is a very unique character so I really wanted to capture that uniqueness.

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

At first glance, this small watercolour group portrait of her two sons and four daughters by Maria Caroline Brownrigg (d. 1880) may seem prosaic, even hesitant

Edward Telford Simpson, 1919

John St Helier Lander

Portrait, pencil on paper

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

Marcie Elizabeth Wilson, 1922

George Lambert

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

Marcie Elizabeth Fairfax

Portrait, pencil and watercolour on paper

Marcie Elizabeth 'Betty' Fairfax (1907–1995) was a leading figure in fashionable circles in Sydney in the 1920s and 1930s.

1 portrait in the collection

Alice Want, 1853

William Nicholas

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

Edward Knox, c. 1927-1929

W B McInnes

Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Diana Pockley

Diana Pockley (née Longridge, 1913–2011), gardener, fundraiser and amateur historian, was born in Exeter, Devon, England and completed her secondary education in Brighton.

1 portrait in the collection

Edward Telford Simpson

Previous exhibition, 2012

Edward Telford Simpson (1889-1965), Alice's grandson, was born the only son of Edward Percy Simpson and his wife Anne.

1 portrait in the collection

Daniel Whitechurch and Laura McKellar, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, 2009 by Nikki Toole

Skater

Portraits by Nikki Toole

Nikki Toole has travelled the world to photograph skateboarders.

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne

William Lamb

William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848), statesman, was Prime Minister of Britain in 1834 and from 1835 to 1841.

2 portraits in the collection

Lady Knox, c. 1927-1929

W B McInnes

Charles Turner after Sir George Hayter

Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne, 1839

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

The house, the horse, the wife and the offspring

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Joanna Gilmour writes about the portraiture of the colonial artist William Nicholas.

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

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

Portrait, engraving on paper

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

David Campbell

Harold Cazneaux, Max Dupain OBE

David Campbell (1952–1984) decided to become an artist while a student at Erina High on the New South Wales Central Coast.

3 portraits in the collection

William Hardy Wilson at Purulia, Warrawee

William Hardy Wilson at Purulia, Warrawee, 1921 (printed by Max Dupain 1981)

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

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

Georges Mora

Georges Mora (1913-1992) was born Gunter Morawski to a Leipzig Jewish bourgeois family of Polish descent.

1 portrait in the collection

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

Annual Appeal

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

TW Edgeworth David and Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David KBE

Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David KBE (1858-1934) was an eminent geologist.

2 portraits in the collection

The Aboriginal community of Lake Tyers, Gippsland

John Bulmer

Portrait, oil on paper laid on board

John Bulmer (1833-1913), missionary and clergyman, came to Australia in 1852 and worked as a cabinetmaker in Melbourne for two years before going to the goldfields.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Georges Mora, 1956

Charles Blackman OBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Bonfire of the vanities

Magazine article by Stuart Purves, 2016

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

Flash

Australian Athletes in Focus

Previous exhibition, 2006

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

Sir Charles Lloyd Jones, 1951

Sir William Dobell OBE

Portrait, oil on composition board

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

TW Edgeworth David and Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 1924

Annie May Moore

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, Governor of South Australia

Sir William F. Jervois

Portrait, cast bronze relief medallion

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

William Charles Wentworth, 1854

Thomas Woolner

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

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa

Husbands and Wives

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

Prince William of Wales, by Mario Testino, 2003 publ. September 2003.
Credit: Mario Testino

Vanity Fair Portraits

Photographs 1913-2008

Previous exhibition, 2009

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

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

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

All there in black and white

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

The National Portrait Gallery acquired a beguiling silhouette group portrait by Samuel Metford, an English artist who spent periods of his working life in America.

The National Portrait Prizes

29 January 2020

Archived media releases 2020

The National Portrait Gallery today announced finalists for the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize, a national new $75,000 prize for Australian portrait painting, and released selected images from the final prize pool for the popular National Photography Portrait Prize.

2023 Annual Appeal

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.

Earth to earth

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

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

Reflections

General content

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

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Honour board

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

Canadian identities

Magazine article by Lilly Koltun, 2004

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

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

Petal to the mettle

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

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

Home and away

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

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.

Mick Jagger, Madonna and Tony Curtis, 1997

The Vanity model

Magazine article by David Friend, 2009

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.

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

Presence and absence

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.

Portfolio of 54 portraits compiled by Queen Victoria, 1859–1861 by John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Camille Silvy, Frances Day and William Bambridge

Queen of cartes

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

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.

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

The Thyssen Art Macabre

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

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

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.

Group photograph taken at the coronation of King George VI including Queen Elizabeth II, Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Queen Mother, 12 May 1937 by Hay Wrightson

Poise and Carats