- About us
- Support the Gallery
- Venue hire
- Publications
- Research library
- Organisation chart
- Employment
- Contact us
- Make a booking
- Onsite programs
- Online programs
- School visit information
- Learning resources
- Little Darlings
- Professional learning
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
Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.
Purchased 2016
Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001
Sarah Hill introduces the portrait busts of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm by Enid Fleming.
Charles Ulm (1898-1934) began work as a clerk in a stockbroking office after he left school, but enlisted under a false identity in the 1st Battalion of the AIF just before his 16th birthday.
2 portraits in the collection
Charles Teo AM (b. 1957) is a neurosurgeon. Born in Sydney, where he attended Scots College and graduated in medicine and surgery from the University of New South Wales, he worked for some years at the Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, Texas and was Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas.
1 portrait in the collection
Jack Charles (1943–2022) was a revered Wiradjuri, Boon Warrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Yorta Yorta Elder, activist, actor, musician and artist.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Turner (1773-1851), engraver, was born in Oxfordshire and moved to London at the end of the 1780s.
2 portraits in the collection
Recorded 2022
Charles Kean (1811-1868), actor, threw in his Eton education when his mother was deserted by his penniless father, the tragedian Edmund Kean.
1 portrait in the collection
Born in Lincolnshire, Charles Hewitt (1837–1912) had begun working in Melbourne by 1860 and was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Victoria.
3 portraits in the collection
Charles Abraham, son of a London architect, trained at the Royal Academy schools under the sculptor Sierier, and for a further three years in Paris and Rome.
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
Charles Brome, engraver, trained from the age of fourteen with the engraver Skelton in London and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1798 to 1801.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Rodius (aka Rhodius) was born in Germany and went to England sometime before 1829, when he was convicted of stealing a reticule and transported to NSW for seven years.
4 portraits in the collection
Charles Alfred Woolley (1834-1922), photographer and sketcher, ran a studio on Macquarie Street in Hobart from 1859 to 1870, producing numerous portraits along with views and stereographs of Hobart and surrounding areas.
6 portraits in the collection
Sir (Alan) Charles Mackerras AC CBE (1925-2010) was chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1985.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Blackman OBE (1928–2018), artist, studied at East Sydney Technical College and worked as a press artist for the Sun newspaper before moving to Melbourne, where he came to the attention of arts patron John Reed.
9 portraits in the collection
Sir Charles Moses (1900-1988), legendary General Manager of the ABC from 1935 to 1965, was born 21 January 1900 in Lancaster, UK and migrated to Australia in 1922, after four years in the army.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Windeyer (1780-1855), magistrate, emigrated to Australia in 1828, having worked as a journalist, publisher and parliamentary reporter in London.
2 portraits in the collection
Charles Perry (1807-1891) was consecrated the first Bishop of Melbourne at Westminster Abbey in 1847, only eleven years after he was ordained into the Anglican church.
4 portraits in the collection
Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903), statesman, landowner, businessman, connoisseur, scholar and physician, was born illegitimately into unpropitious circumstances in Yorkshire.
2 portraits in the collection
Charles Wheeler OBE (1881–1977), artist, won the Archibald Prize in 1933 for a portrait of the popular Melbourne-based writer Ambrose Pratt.
8 portraits in the collection
Charles Summers (1825-1878) was an English born sculptor, who came to Australia in 1852.
2 portraits in the collection
Charles Chauvel (1897-1959), actor and film-maker, worked on the sets of Snowy Baker films as a young man, and followed the great action hero to Hollywood in 1921.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell AM (1923-2009), actor, became the youngest radio announcer in Australia when he was employed at Sydney radio station 2CH as a cadet.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Perkins AO (1936–2000) was an Indigenous rights campaigner and bureaucrat.
6 portraits in the collection
Recorded 1971
Recorded 1965
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rob and Paula McLean 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2013
Charles Warman Roberts (1821–1894), publican, was born in Sydney, the eldest son of free settler parents who emigrated to Australia in 1821.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith MC AFC (1897- last seen 1935) and Captain Charles Ulm (1898-last seen 1934) together founded Australian National Airlines.
3 portraits in the collection
Charles Cameron Kingston was a delegate from South Australia to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney, 1891.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Vincent Charles Fairfax CMG (1909-1993), pastoralist, was the son of JHF Fairfax.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875), colonial administrator, travelled widely in Europe and America before beginning his colonial career in the West Indies in 1837.
3 portraits in the collection
Charles John Cerutty CMG (1870-1941), public servant, began his career at the age of eighteen as a clerk in the Victorian Department of the Treasurer.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (1878-1958), merchant and arts patron, grew up in Sydney, where he studied at Julian Ashton's art school in 1895.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Gibson Millar (1839–1900), entrepreneur, was engaged in a number of industrial and agricultural enterprises in Australia during the 1870s, 80s and 90s.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Haddon Chambers (1860-1921), playwright and dramatist, grew up in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Charles Edward Merrett CBE (1863-1948), merchant and agriculturalist, was a schoolboy at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School when his father was retrenched and died.
1 portrait in the collection
Anthony Charles Carden (1961–1995), activist and actor, became interested in performance while a school student at Knox Grammar, Wahroonga.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of Stephen Scheding and Jim Berry 2015
Rod and Jack on the series of portraits they created together.
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001
Stephen Phillips talks to neurosurgeon Charlie Teo about his practice, perspectives and the anatomy of hope.
Purchased 2018
Meredith McKinney, subject of Charles Blackman's 'The Family', recounts memories from her childhood and the creation of the portrait.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir Charles Mackerras 2009
Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729–1808), statesman, was educated at Oxford and entered parliament in 1761.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased through the Foundation Acquisitions Fund 2015
Gift of Warwick Evans 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of HOTA (Home of the Arts), Gold Coast 2019 with the encouragement of Patrick Corrigan AM
Purchased 1999
Charles Robert Wynn-Carrington (1843–1928), 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire, landowner and Liberal politician, was governor of New South Wales in the late 1880s.
2 portraits in the collection
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Purchased 2019
Purchased 2010
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Aimee Board chats to emerging photographer Charles Dennington.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Allanah Dopson and Nicholas Heyward 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Gift of Lesley Saddington 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Echoing 19th-century photography, Rod McNicol's portraits give us a chance to look quietly at the human condition.
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2006
Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001
Gift of Eleonora Triguboff 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Gift of the artist 2020
Gift of the artist 2020
Gift of the artist 2020
Gift of the artist 2020
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Joanna Russell Maher (née Windeyer) 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by
Allanah Dopson & Nicholas Heyward 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Thoms family 2011
Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington (1860–1940) had served four years in the House of Commons before being appointed governor of Queensland in October 1895.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2019
Purchased 2019
Purchased 2004
Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2003
Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.
Purchased 2022
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Gift of Sally Douglas 2024
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
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.
Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.
Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Purchased 2015
Gift of Ronald Walker 2002
Purchased 2013
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Purchased 2013
Purchased with funds provided by Tim Bednall 2021
Gift of Joanna McNiven 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2019
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2009
Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Purchased 2013
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patricia Tryon Macdonald 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 2009
Winner, DPA 2016
Desirable outcomes, undesirable origins
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Charles Warman Roberts married Annie Edensor Marsden (1824-1895) in Sydney in June 1845.
1 portrait in the collection
Eileen Perkins is a descendant of one of Adelaide's prominent German Lutheran families.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the family of Sir Victor and Lady Windeyer 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Charles is my wingman
Ann Mary Windeyer (née Rudd, c. 1783–1865) arrived in Sydney in 1828 with her husband Charles Windeyer (1780–1855) and nine of their ten children.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Reg, Lesley, Glen and Paul Thoms 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Joanna Russell Maher (née Windeyer) 2018
The Photographic Society of Victoria was formed in 1876 to 'bring photographers together in a friendly spirit, in order to advance the art and science of photography in the colony, without any attempt at binding or dictating to members any special trading rules, such as charges for photographs or hours or days for closing or opening their respective establishments.' At the time of the first annual meeting on 9 March 1877 there were 61 members, five whom were ladies.
1 portrait in the collection
Adam Perkins, an Arrernte and Kalkadoon man, is the son of Indigenous rights campaigner and bureaucrat Charles Perkins AO.
1 portrait in the collection
Rod McNicol on photographing Jack Charles.
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Sarah Reading (1808-1875) came to Sydney from England in 1838 with her husband, John Fairfax (1805-1877), who had left school at the age of twelve and been apprenticed to a printer and bookseller.
1 portrait in the collection
John Fairfax (1805-1877) was a newspaper publisher whose purchase of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1841 began a family association with the paper that would last for over five generations and nearly 150 years.
3 portraits in the collection
Natasha Johnston (1914-1984) was born Nataliya Konstantinovna Bagration-Moukhranskya, Princess Natasha Bagration, in Crimea.
1 portrait in the collection
An annual event to extend traditional notions of portraiture and foster emerging artists with an interest in new technology.
This issue features Cindy Sherman, Tim Storrier, Brett Whiteley and Patrick White, contemporary Chinese portraiture, Charles Blackman and more.
Encompassing the 1820s to the 2020s, Time and Line showcases the depth and extent of our drawing collection.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Hugo Vickers 2005
Gift of Charles E. Lloyd Jones and Kim Lloyd Jones 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Very little is known as yet about the artist G Ziegler, who may have been related to the painter Henry Bryan Ziegler.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
Influential Indigenous Australian artist Michael Riley (1960 - 2004) created these portrait photographs between 1984 and 1990 - they stand as an intricately connected group portrait of the vibrant urban-based Indigenous arts community in Sydney's inner-west at a formative moment.
French artist Jean Baptiste Guth was a regular contributor of portraits to Vanity Fair during the late 1880s and throughout the 1890s.
1 portrait in the collection
Elizabeth Fairfax (née Jesson, 1778–1861), colonial free settler, was born in Birmingham and around 1800 married William Fairfax, whose family had previously held estates in Barford, Warwickshire.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of David Lloyd Jones, in memory of his father, David Lloyd Jones 2021. Donated through Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Barry Sullivan (1821-1891), English actor, performed on the Melbourne stage between 1862 and 1866.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Windeyer (1806-1847), journalist, barrister and politician, was the eldest of the ten children born to Charles Windeyer and his wife Ann Mary and remained in England when the rest of his family went to New South Wales.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of Charles E. Lloyd Jones and Kim Lloyd Jones 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Ron Mueck grew up in Melbourne and began a career in puppetry and special-effects based in the US and then London. In the mid-1990s Charles Saatchi commissioned four major works including Dead dad, which were exhibited in Saatchi’s exhibition ‘Sensation’ at the Royal Academy, London and which travelled to Berlin and Brooklyn.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018
The exhibition will feature some of the most significant portraits in the artist’s career to date, from early major works such as his painting of HM Queen Mary of Denmark through to his most recent.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Charles ‘Chicka’ Dixon (1928–2010), Yuin Elder, Aboriginal rights activist and social pioneer, was born at Wallaga Lake on the New South Wales south coast.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The winner of the Digital Portraiture Award 2016 has been announced. Congratulations to Amiel Courtin-Wilson for his submission titled Charles.
Marian Anderson, emerging photographer Charles Dennington, piscatorial portraits, and the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou and more.
Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Helge Jon Molvig was born and grew up in Newcastle, where he left school at thirteen and worked in a garage and at the steelworks.
6 portraits in the collection
Dempsey’s people: a folio of British street portraits 1824–1844 is the first exhibition to showcase the compelling watercolour images of English street people made by the itinerant English painter John Dempsey throughout the first half of the nineteenth century.
Australian photographer Rod McNicol has consistently analysed the passing of time through the evidence of the photographic portrait. At once confronting and tender, McNicol’s portrait photographs are bold and intimate.
William Owen moved to London from his native Shropshire in 1786 and was apprenticed for seven years to the coach-painter Charles Catton.
1 portrait in the collection
Gilbert Eric Douglas (1902–1970), pilot and air force officer, took part in Sir Douglas Mawson’s British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE), which took the form of two ocean voyages conducted over the southern summers of 1929–30 and 1930–31.
1 portrait in the collection
David Warren graduated from RMIT in 1964, after which he taught for some twenty years at the Prahran School of Art, RMIT and Ballarat CAE.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
The Hon. Linda Jean Burney MP (b. 1957), a Wiradjuri woman, is the first First Nations person elected to the New South Wales parliament, and the first First Nations woman to serve in the federal House of Representatives.
2 portraits in the collection
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.
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
Maria Windeyer (née Camfield, 1795–1878), landowner, emigrated to New South Wales in 1835 with her husband Richard, a barrister, and their infant son, William Charles.
2 portraits in the collection
Thomas Heathfield Carrick, miniature painter, grew up in Carlisle, where he trained and traded as a chemist, painting miniatures in his spare time.
1 portrait in the collection
James Reading Fairfax (1834 -1919) was the second of John Fairfax's sons to join him in business.
1 portrait in the collection
Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE (1915–2009), aviatrix, decided she wanted to be a pilot when, at age eight, she saw a plane make an emergency landing on a beach near her home.
2 portraits in the collection
François Bonneville was one of the leading French engravers of the period of the Revolution, selling his works at the Imprimérie du Cercle Social on the Rue du Théâtre-Francais until 1797, and then, until 1814, at successive premises on the Rue Saint Jacques.
2 portraits in the collection
The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company was founded in 1854 by George Swan Nottage.
2 portraits in the collection
The Reutlinger Studios operated in Paris from 1850 to 1937, under the direction of Charles, Emile and Leopold Reutlinger respectively.
1 portrait in the collection
Ian 'Molly' Meldrum AM (b. 1946) has a long history of involvement and influence in the Australian rock music industry.
1 portrait in the collection
Falk Studios was established by Melbourne-born photographer H. Walter Barnett in George Street, Sydney in 1885.
5 portraits in the collection
Mary Moore (b. 1957) is a West Australian portrait artist. She began formal art training in Claremont at the age of fifteen, later attending the Western Australian Institute of Technology and Royal College of Art, London.
4 portraits in the collection
Explore an Indian treasure trove, photography by Robert McFarlane and Nan Goldin, Michael Taylor's expressionist paintings, the Great War portraits, and more!
Portraits can render honour to remarkable men and women, but there are other ways.
As a tribute to Sir William Dargie's singular contribution to Australian art and cultural institutions, and on the occasion of his birthday, The Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery will mount exhibitions of his work between May and October
Kristin Headlam, born in Launceston, completed a BA at the University of Melbourne in the 1970s and studied painting at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1980-1981.
2 portraits in the collection
Livingston Hopkins, cartoonist, was born in Ohio and fought in the American Civil War before beginning his cartooning career in New York.
3 portraits in the collection
Damien Parer (1912-1944), photographer and filmmaker, became friends with Max Dupain in the thirties, often taking photographs with him on excursions to the beach and bush.
2 portraits in the collection
Ursula Hoff AO OBE (1909–2005) was a curator, art historian and academic.
1 portrait in the collection
A philosopher-style of beard – thick and lengthy; a greyer, hence wiser version of the Burke; and suited to older men who saw themselves as sagacious or statesmanlike.
The National Portrait Gallery is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Throughout her 70-year reign, Her Majesty represented graciousness, humanity and stability during times of enormous social change.
Purchased 2009
Peter Russell-Clarke, cook, started his career as a freelance cartoonist, working for advertising agencies in Australia and overseas.
1 portrait in the collection
Barbering manuals of the turn of the century might describe this style as a ‘Van Dyck’, named after the Dutch painter Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) who is known to have adopted this look.
James King (c. 1750-1784), naval officer, was born in Lancashire and educated at Clitheroe Grammar School before entering the navy in 1762.
1 portrait 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
Henry Bryan Hall grew up in England and began his trade as an apprentice to the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer.
1 portrait in the collection
Colin Wills (1906–1965), journalist and author, was born in Toowoomba, Queensland and grew up in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Sally Douglas 2009
William McLellan (1831–1906), miner and parliamentarian, served on the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1859 to 1877, and again between 1883 and 1897.
1 portrait in the collection
Errol Flynn (1909-1959), actor, was born in Hobart, where his father was a biology lecturer, and spent his childhood in Tasmania, England and Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
James Moorhouse (1826-1915), Anglican bishop, had an exceptionally distinguished career and publication record before he came from England to Melbourne to succeed Charles Perry.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Purchased 2004
Gift of Gerard Vaughan 2001
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Sir William Dargie, painter and eight times winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture, died in Melbourne on July 26, 2003, aged 91.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2018
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl Liverpool, Lord Hawkesbury (1770–1828), statesman, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827.
2 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Desire drives forbidden love
Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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
Purchased 2016
Mabel Forrest (née Mills, 1872–1935), writer, was born near Yandilla on the Darling Downs and grew up on various cattle stations in the district, publishing her first poem at age ten.
1 portrait in the collection
Melbourne’s iconic culture-shapers
William Mora (1953–2023), art dealer and gallerist, was the eldest son of artist Mirka Mora and restauranteur and gallery owner Georges Mora.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Gift of Roger Neill 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Robert McFarlane (1942–2023), photographer, was born in Glenelg, South Australia.
31 portraits in the collection
Julia Margaret Cameron was of the most important photographers of the nineteenth century.
1 portrait in the collection
Mungo MacCallum (1941–2020) was one of Australia's best-known political journalists.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2013
Frances Perry (1815-1892) met Charles Perry through her brother, a student at Cambridge, and after they married, the couple lived at St Paul’s Cambridge, where he was vicar, for six years.
1 portrait in the collection
H. Walter Barnett (1862-1934) was a leading portrait photographer of the late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar periods.
12 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2001
In 2000, Barbara Blackman donated a portrait of her close friends - poet Judith Wright, her husband Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith - painted by Charles Blackman.
Emily Ross (née Fairfax) (1832-1871) was the eldest child of newspaper publisher John Fairfax - who founded the Fairfax news dynasty in Sydney in 1841 - and his wife Sarah.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2004
For Dempsey’s people their occasional encounters with state power would have been largely through the local parish, which administered the ‘Old Poor Law’.
Mike Brown (1938-1997) artist, was a participant (with Ross Crothall and Colin Lanceley) in the 1962 Annandale Imitation Realists exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and Design, Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2015
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Harry Williams (b. 1951) is a Wiradjuri man and the first Indigenous footballer to represent Australia at international level.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB MD FRS (1817-1911), botanist, explorer and medical doctor, visited Australia as a member of James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition of 1839 to 1843.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 2022
Purchased 2009
Darrell Sibosado is a Bard man of the Lombadina Community, in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Desperately seeking Woolner medallions
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Purchased 2016
Gift of the artist 2015
François Péron (1775-1810), naturalist and explorer, served as a soldier from 1792 to 1794, in which period he was imprisoned and lost the sight of one eye.
6 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2015
Gift of Dr Phillip Dutton and Valerie Dutton 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Thea Anamara Perkins (b. 1992) is an Arrernte/Kalkadoon artist whose practice incorporates portraiture and landscape to depict authentic representations of First Nations peoples and Country.
1 portrait in the collection
Jane Windeyer (1865–1950) was the second eldest daughter of politician and judge Sir William Charles Windeyer (1834–1897) and his wife, Mary (née Bolton, 1837–1912), a leading campaigner for women’s rights.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Gift of an anonymous donor 2007
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Wenten Rubuntja AM (1923–2005) was an Arrernte law man, committee and board member, artist, historian, storyteller and intermediary.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892), naturalist, anatomist and palaeontologist, was born in Lancaster and apprenticed to surgeon-apothecaries there before completing his studies in medicine in Edinburgh and London.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004
Purchased 2022
Poetic trio
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Rod McNicol's method and motivation, 19th century Indigenous peoples, Barrie Cassidy on Bob Hawke, five generations of the Kang family from Korea and more.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018
Sir James McCulloch KCMG (1819–1893) served four separate terms as premier of Victoria between 1863 and 1877.
1 portrait in the collection
Chips Rafferty MBE (1909–1971), screen actor, was born John Goffage in Broken Hill and nicknamed 'Chips' as a boy.
5 portraits in the collection
Shahleena Musk is Larrakia lawyer from Darwin. She was the first Aboriginal person to graduate from the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University) and to be admitted to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 1999. Courtesy of the Corrigan family and Stuart Purves.
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
The artist's diary profiles six decades of Cassab's work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture.
Gift of the artist 2004
This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2012
An examination of the life and times of George Lambert through the gesture and pose in his self portrait.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2009
Hannah Benyon Lloyd Jones OBE (1901–1982) was the third wife of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones, the chairman of David Jones from 1920 until his death in 1958.
3 portraits in the collection
Frederick Eccleston du Faur (1832–1915), environmentalist, public servant and arts patron, came to Australia from his native London in 1853.
1 portrait in the collection
Judy Cassab AO CBE (1920–2015) was one of Australia's best-loved, most successful and prolific portrait painters.
22 portraits in the collection
Dame Nellie Melba GBE (1861–1931), world-renowned soprano, was born Helen Porter Mitchell in Melbourne.
8 portraits in the collection
Barbara Blackman AO (b. 1928), writer, poet and arts patron, was only fifteen when the ABC Weekly published one of her poems.
5 portraits in the collection
In March 2003 Magda Keaney travelled to London to join the photography section of the Victoria & Albert Museum for three months.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
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.
James Alipius Goold (1812-1886), first Catholic bishop and archbishop of Melbourne, volunteered for service in New South Wales having studied in Rome and Perugia.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003
Purchased 2018
Hetti Perkins (b. 1965), Arrernte and Kalkadoon curator, cultural adviser, writer and activist, began her career at the Sydney gallery of Aboriginal Arts Australia before joining the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative as a curator.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2001
Kyle Vander-Kuyp (b. 1971) is a Worimi and Yuin man and Australia's greatest ever 110 m hurdler.
2 portraits in the collection
Hall of Mirrors: Anne Zahalka Portraits 1987-2007 explores the thread of portraiture through the artist's prolific career, now spanning more than 20 years.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Will Huxley grew up in the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, and Garrett Huxley was raised on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
3 portraits in the collection
The World of Thea Proctor is the Portrait Gallery's second major biographical exhibition - that is, the second exhibition to focus exclusively on the life and work of a single individual
Mary Windeyer (née Bolton, 1837-1912), women's rights campaigner, was one of the nine children of Robert Thorley Bolton, a clergyman who emigrated to New South Wales in 1839.
3 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Jack Thompson AM (b. 1940) is an actor and the face of the 1970s Australian film renaissance.
3 portraits in the collection
The restrained and cultivated facial hair fashions evident through the first decades of the 1800s were on the wane by the middle of the century, when hirsute faces became mainstream.
Purchased 2006
Joanna Gilmour explores the extraordinary life of Australian female aviator Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001
This is the first major exhibition to examine photographic portraiture in Australia, from its beginnings in the early 1840s to the present day
Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.
Sir John Hay (1816-1892), pastoralist and politician, graduated in law in his native Scotland before emigrating to New South Wales with his new wife, Mary, in 1838.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007
Garrett Huxley (b. 1973) was born in Melbourne and raised on the Gold Coast.
3 portraits in the collection
Will Huxley (b. 1982) was born in Bath, England, emigrating with his family at the age of seven to grow up in the suburbs of Perth.
3 portraits in the collection
Australian photographer Rod McNicol has consistently analysed the passing of time through the evidence of the photographic portrait. At once confronting and tender, McNicol’s portrait photographs are bold and intimate.
John David Armstrong (1857–1943) was a sideshow and vaudeville performer known as ‘The Australian Tom Thumb’.
2 portraits in the collection
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.
Paul Gaimard (1796-1858), naturalist and naval surgeon, joined the French navy after distinguishing himself at the naval medical school at Toulon.
1 portrait in the collection
Gary Heery, photographer, was born in Sydney, where he studied sociology and psychology at the University of New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
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
Stan Grant (b. 1963), a proud Wiradjuri man born in Griffith, New South Wales, grew up wanting to be a journalist.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Nicholas-Martin Petit was born in Paris, the son of a fan maker, and learned graphic art in the studio of Jacques Louis David.
9 portraits in the collection
Gamaliel Butler (1783–1852), lawyer and free settler, emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1824 with his wife, Sarah (née Paine, 1787–1870).
2 portraits in the collection
Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.
Purchased 2009
Janet Dawson (b. 1935), painter, printer, teacher and stage designer, is known for her contribution to abstract art in Australia.
10 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
William Birdwood KCMG KCSI KCB DSO, 1st Baron Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes (1865-1951) commanded the Australian Corps for much of the First World War.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2005
Ralph Sutton (1908-1967), Methodist minister, trained in Sydney, was ordained in 1935 and began his career in Mosman Methodist Church.
1 portrait in the collection
Barry Tuckwell AC OBE (1931-2020), horn soloist, conductor, teacher and author spent his early years in Melbourne, where he learned a variety of instruments including piano and violin.
1 portrait in the collection
George William Perry (1824–1900) was born in London and arrived in Victoria via South Africa around 1852.
2 portraits in the collection
Tsering Hannaford reflects on her experiences, process and motivation for making portraits.
Purchased 2020
Originally conceived as an anthropological record, Percy Leason’s powerful 1934 portraits of Victorian Aboriginal people are today considered to be a highlight of 20th century Australian portraiture
Rod McNicol (b. 1946), photographic artist, studied photography at Prahran College in Melbourne, where he formed a close friendship with Athol Shmith.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
June Mendoza AO OBE (1924–2024) was born into a musical family in Melbourne and started sketching portraits while touring with her mother, a composer and pianist.
1 portrait in the collection
David Lloyd Jones (1931–1961) was the great-grandson of the original David Jones – who founded the eponymous department store in Sydney in 1838 – and the eldest son of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (1878–1958), who was chairman of David Jones Ltd from 1920 until his death.
1 portrait in the collection
John Gould (1804–1881) is known as the ‘father of Australian ornithology’ for his Birds of Australia, published in seven volumes between 1840 and 1848.
1 portrait in the collection
Julian Meagher was born in Sydney in 1978 and studied part time at the Julian Ashton Art School before undertaking a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery at the University of New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
9 portraits in the collection
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.
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
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) travelled to Australia as a member of the expedition conducted by Owen Stanley on the Rattlesnake between 1846 and 1850.
2 portraits in the collection
Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Ron Mueck (b. 1958), sculptor, first attracted widespread attention in 1997, when his poignant work Dead Dad was featured in the landmark exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy, London and subsequently shown in Berlin and New York.
1 portrait in the collection
First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.
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.
Purchased 2001
Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007
The ‘first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America’ was in fact the second Australian cricket side to contest matches internationally (a team of Indigenous players having done so in 1868), but it is considered the first official national representative team to tour overseas.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2013
Ethel Marian (Maie) Casey AC, Baroness Casey (1892-1983), chatelaine, artist, pilot and author, was born in Melbourne, the daughter of the Surgeon General, Sir Charles Ryan.
1 portrait 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.
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.
Dr Helen Caldicott (b. 1938), physician, author and activist, was born Helen Broinowski in Melbourne and gained her degree in Medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1961.
1 portrait in the collection
Following the success of Glossy: Faces, Magazines, Now in 1999 the National Portrait Gallery again highlights the huge array of contemporary portraiture in the pages of magazines.
I first knew Dr. Hoff when in 1986, long after retiring from the National Gallery of Victoria, she taught a graduate seminar on Rembrandt.
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 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Tuckwell 2018
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) is one of the most intriguing and talented figures in colonial Australian art.
4 portraits in the collection
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM (1937-2022), Arrernte and Anmatjere woman, Aboriginal activist, former actress and nun, was born at Artekerre soak on Utopia Cattle Station in the Northern Territory, the daughter of Allan and Ruby Kunoth.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
A rare and enchanting collection of 52 portraits of British street people will be on display for the first time in the National Portrait Gallery’s winter show, Dempsey’s People: a folio of British street portraits 1824-1844.
These full-length figures in watercolour, gouache and pencil date mostly from the 1820s, and almost all come from the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.
Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores celebrates men and women who have championed the unique culinary characteristics and produce of Australia, enriching our lives with new ideas and new flavours over the past forty years.
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
Purchased 2012
Ada Jemima Crossley (1874–1929), singer, was one of several Australian-born divas to achieve an international reputation in the late nineteenth century.
2 portraits in the collection
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Purchased 2017
John Lort Stokes (1812–1885), explorer, naval officer and surveyor, joined the navy at age twelve and age thirteen was assigned to HMS Beagle as a midshipman.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
Penelope Grist unpacks photographs by David Parker, who captured the phenomenal emergence of the 1970s and 80s Melbourne music scene.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
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
Sir George Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958), photographer, cinematographer, polar explorer and naturalist, spent his childhood on a farm in South Australia and became interested in photography while studying engineering and music at the University of Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
Presented by Sir Roy Strong and the late Dr Julia Trevelyan Oman in memory of their friendship with Gordon Darling and Marilyn Darling 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Thomas Woolner, sculptor, studied first with the brothers Henry and William Behnes, painter and sculptor respectively, and later at the Royal Academy, at which he was to become professor of sculpture in his fifties.
5 portraits in the collection
Barbara Blackman reflects on her experiences as a life model.
This article examines the portraits gifted to the National Portrait Gallery by Fairfax Holdings in 2003.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Sydney-based painter Ralph Heimans AM (b. 1970) is one of the world's foremost contemporary portraitists, having created a body of work that has expanded and redefined the possibilities of what is sometimes perceived as an inflexibly traditional genre.
19 portraits in the collection
The long life and few words of a vice-regal cockatoo
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
A major new exhibition celebrating love in all its guises. Opening 20 March 2021.
Family affections are preserved in a fine selection of intimate portraits.
Joanna Gilmour revels in accidental artist Charles Rodius’ nineteenth century renderings of Indigenous peoples.
Edward Riou (1762-1801), naval officer, began his career with the Royal Navy at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.
Just after 10.00 o'clock on 3 December 1879, four prisoners were brought from their cells at Darlinghurst Gaol and placed in the dock of a courtroom heaving with agitated spectators
Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.
Gideon Haigh discusses portraits of Australian cricketers from the early 20th century
Joanna Gilmour reveals love’s more intense manifestations in the tale of Lord Kenelm and Venetia Digby.
Naomi Cass, Director of the Centre of Contemporary Photography, in conversation with Anne Zahalka.
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.
When soulmates Janet Dawson and Michael Boddy moved from Sydney to a property, Boddy was clear about why: ‘Our marriage is one long conversation - we moved to the bush so we could talk to each other without so many interruptions.’
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Charting a path from cockatiel to finch, Annette Twyman explores her family portraits and stories.
The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.
In March 2024, the National Portrait Gallery will launch a major exhibition of the work of Ralph Heimans AM, the Australian artist who’s painted some of the world’s most recognisable people.
Deborah Hill talks figures with character, as the National Portrait Gallery touring exhibitions program welcomes its millionth visitor.
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.
Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.
Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864–1947) was one of the most celebrated Australian expatriate artists of his generation, achieving a degree of success in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s that was unmatched by his peers.
3 portraits in the collection
Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.
Louis-Claude Desaulses de Freycinet (1779–1842), hydrographer and cartographer, sailed with Nicolas Baudin on the Expédition aux terres australes, a journey of discovery, commissioned by Napoléon, to the unknown southern coast of New Holland.
1 portrait in the collection
Aviation carried women’s roles in society to greater heights – fashion followed suit.
The first collaborative commission has arrived. It's a self portrait, it's ceramic and it's from Hermannsburg.
I agonized over the choice of four songs to take with me to the ABC Studios for Alex Sloan’s Canberra 666 afternoon program, a sort of iteration of the old BBC Desert Island Discs.
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.
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.
Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was one of the greatest portrait painters in history.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.
Angus Trumble treats the gallery’s collection with a dab hand.
Pamela Gerrish Nunn explores New Zealand’s premium award for portraiture.
Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.
Emma Batchelor uncovers the compelling contemporary dance made in response to the works in Shakespeare to Winehouse.
Johanna McMahon revels in history and mystery in pursuit of a suite of unknown portrait subjects.
More than eighty treasures from the National Portrait Gallery London will travel to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from March 2022.
Anne Sanders and Christopher Chapman bring passionate characterisation to Express Yourself, the Portrait Gallery collection exhibition celebrating iconoclastic Australians.
Mark Strizic's work crosses a broad spectrum of photographic fields including urban, industrial, commercial, and architectural photography.
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.
Penelope Grist speaks to Robert McFarlane about shooting for the stars.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Christopher Chapman considers photographer Rozalind Drummond's portrait of author Nam Le.
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.
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.
Emma Kindred examines fashion as a representation of self and social ritual in 19th-century portraiture.
Joanna Gilmour explores the 1790 portrait of William Bligh by Robert Dodd.
An interview with the photographer.
Those of you who are active in social media circles may be aware that through the past week I have unleashed a blitz on Facebook and Instagram in connection with our new winter exhibition Dempsey’s People: A Folio of British Street Portraits, 1824−1844.
Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.
Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.
Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.
The National Portrait Gallery's acquisition of the portrait of Edward John Eyre by pioneering English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.
Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.
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.
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.
Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.
The first index I created was for my first book, and, to my astonishment, that was almost twenty-five years ago.
As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.
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.
Penelope Grist’s spirits soar with Lisa Tomasetti’s Dancers in the Streets series.
Martin Sharp fulfils the Pop art idiom of merging art and life.
A National Portrait Gallery, London exhibition redefines portraiture, shifting the focus towards a new perspective on Pop Art.
Inga Walton delves into the bohemian group of artists and writers who used each other as muses and transformed British culture.
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.
Gumbaynggirr artist Aretha Brown talks street art, collaboration and ghost stories with First Nations Curator and Meriam woman, Rebecca Ray.
Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
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.
Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.
The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.
The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.
Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.
George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.
Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.
Robyn Sweaney's quiet Violet obsession.
An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.
Inga Walton traces the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, revealed in the NGV’s summer retrospective.
Dr Christopher Chapman describes the experimental exhibition Portraits + Architecture
Jerrold Nathan's portrait of Jessie Street shows the elegant side of a many-faceted lady.
Frank Hurley's celebrated images document the heroism and minutiae of Australian exploration in Antarctica.
Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.
Joanna Gilmour takes us behind the scenes of some of Ralph Heimans’ best-known portraits of royalty, heads of state and cultural icons.
Sarah Engledow picks some favourites from a decade of the National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Fiona Gruber investigates the work of Australian painter Kristin Headlam.
Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.
Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.
Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.
The southern winter has arrived. For people in the northern hemisphere (the majority of humanity) the idea of snow and ice, freezing mist and fog in June, potentially continuing through to August and beyond, encapsulates the topsy-turvidom of our southern continent.
Preserving stories, subverting power and posing nude: Benjamin Law explores the potency and persuasiveness of portraiture.
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 discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
Dr Sarah Engledow examines a number of figures in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery who were pioneers or substantial supporters of the seminal Australian environmental campaigns of the early 1970s and 1980s.
This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.
Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.
To accompany the exhibition Cecil Beaton: Portraits, held at the NPG in 2005, this article is drawn from Hugo Vickers's authorised biography, Cecil Beaton (1985).
Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Aircraft designer, pilot and entrepreneur, Sir Lawrence Wackett rejoins friends and colleagues on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.
The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825.
How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be
A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.
The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.
Jane Raffan feasts on modernity’s entrée in the Belle Époque theatre of the demimonde.
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.
Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
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.
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.
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
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.
Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.
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.