Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Will (William Henry) Dyson, cartoonist, caricaturist, writer and draughtsman, was born in Alfredtown, near Ballarat, and studied for a short time in Melbourne, where he worked closely with his older brother Ambrose.
11 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Doug Hall 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Edward Aaron Cohen (1822–1877), merchant, politician and community leader, came to Australia with his mother and nine siblings in 1833, his father, Henry, having been transported to New South Wales that year.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Edward Knox (1819-1901), businessman and banker, grew up in Denmark and as teenager joined his uncle's London mercantile firm as a clerk.
1 portrait in the collection
Edward Richards, photographer, has lived and worked in Canberra for most of his life.
1 portrait in the collection
Edward MacMahon CBE (1904–1987), surgeon, studied medicine at the University of Sydney and completed his residency at the Sydney Hospital.
1 portrait in the collection
The Reverend Edward Puckle (c. 1800-1898), Anglican clergyman, took holy orders in Exeter and officiated in Cornwall before sailing on the Randolph to Canterbury, NZ in 1850.
1 portrait in the collection
Edward Riou (1762-1801), naval officer, began his career with the Royal Navy at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
![The Sculling Match at Sydney for the Championship of the World [Edward Trickett] (from the Australasian Sketcher, 4 August 1877)](/files/d/2/b/3/i13903-slq.jpg "The Sculling Match at Sydney for the Championship of the World [Edward Trickett] (from the Australasian Sketcher, 4 August 1877)")
Edward 'Ned' Trickett (1851- 916), sculler and hotelier, was the best sculler in New South Wales by 1875.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Edward Eyre Williams (1813–1880), judge and barrister, arrived in Port Phillip in 1842 having been admitted to the Bar in London nine years earlier.
1 portrait in the collection
Eddie Sawden was a surfer and board manufacturer on the Gold and Tweed Coasts in the 1960s and 1970s, a regular on beaches such as Burleigh, Currumbin, Kirra and Greenmount.
1 portrait in the collection
Edward William Knox (1847-1933), industrialist, was the second of four surviving sons of Sir Edward Knox, founder of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co, and his wife Martha Rutledge (sister of merchant, banker and settler William Rutlege).
3 portraits in the collection
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
Sir Edward Wheewall Holden (1885-1947), industrialist and politician, was the son of Henry Holden, industrialist and civic leader, and the grandson of James Alexander Holden, Adelaide leather and saddlery business owner.
1 portrait in the collection
Francis Edward (Frank) Wootton (1893-1940), jockey, was born into the family of a Sydney horse trainer who is said to have been so determined that his sons would become jockeys that he denied them adequate meals.
1 portrait in the collection
Edward John Eyre (1815-1901), explorer and administrator, emigrated to New South Wales from England when he was 17.
3 portraits in the collection
Richard Edward O'Connor (1851-1912), barrister and judge, was raised and educated in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Sydney Edward Gregory (1870–1929) was born on the site of the Sydney Cricket Ground, the son of batsman Ned Gregory (1839–1899), who was one of five boys from the same family who all played cricket at national or international level.
1 portrait in the collection
William Edward (Bill) Harney (1895–1962), bushman and raconteur, spent his childhood in Charters Towers and Cairns and started working as a stockman and boundary rider at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
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
John Edward Thornett MBE (1935–2019), former rugby union international, grew up in Sydney and was educated at Sydney Boys’ High where, in addition to being school captain, he excelled at rugby, swimming and rowing.
1 portrait in the collection
Edward Hammond Hargraves (1816–1891), adventurer and speculator, claimed credit for the discovery of payable goldfields in New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2018
Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tim Clark 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010
Gift of the MacMahon family in affectionate memory of Edward MacMahon and William Dobell 2015. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Francis Edward de Groot (1888-1969) was born in Dublin and came to Australia in 1910.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Edward (‘Weary’) Dunlop AC CMG OBE (1907–1993) was a surgeon, who as a prisoner-of-war on the infamous Burma Railway used his medical skills to save the lives of a great number of allied POWs.
2 portraits in the collection
![The Sculling Match at Sydney for the Championship of the World [Edward Trickett] (from the Australasian Sketcher, 4 August 1877)](/files/d/2/b/3/i13903-sl.jpg "The Sculling Match at Sydney for the Championship of the World [Edward Trickett] (from the Australasian Sketcher, 4 August 1877)")
![The Sculling Match at Sydney for the Championship of the World [Edward Trickett] (from the Australasian Sketcher, 4 August 1877)](/files/d/2/b/3/i13903-ths.jpg "The Sculling Match at Sydney for the Championship of the World [Edward Trickett] (from the Australasian Sketcher, 4 August 1877)")
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Sir Edward John Lees Hallstrom (1886–1970) manufacturer, philanthropist and zoo trustee, grew up with his eight siblings in Waterloo, Sydney, after the family left the failed family farm in Coonamble, New South Wales.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of John J Holden 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ross and Judy O'Connell 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Gift of Charles E. Jones and Kim Lloyd Jones 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John and Vivien Thornett 2014
The National Portrait Gallery's acquisition of the portrait of Edward John Eyre by pioneering English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ronald A Walker 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
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
Gift of the Musgrave Family 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
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 1999
The life and achievements of Sir Edward Holden, who is represented in the portrait collection by a bust created by Leslie Bowles.
Joanna Gilmour recounts the story of ill-fated sea voyages in the early stages of the Antipodean colony.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter and Susan Dadswell 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Karen McLeod Adair and Anthony Adair 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009
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.
King Edward Terrace was named in honour of King Edward VII (1841-1910)
Purchased 2010
Edward Paine Butler (1811-1849), lawyer, and his wife Martha Sarah Butler (née Asprey, 1811-1864), arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1835.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Gordon Furlee Brown, whose career is not documented in standard texts on Australian photography or art, exhibited in the Victorian Salon of Photography in 1931.
3 portraits in the collection
Ruby Lindsay (1885-1919), artist and illustrator, left home at 16 and went to Melbourne where she studied at the National Gallery School.
3 portraits in the collection
Royal romps: illicit liaisons
Jessie, Lady Eyre Williams (neé Gibbon, 1815-1903), colonial spouse, was the daughter of an Aberdeenshire clergyman.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2009
Martha Knox (née Rutledge, d. 1903), was the sister of merchant, landowner and banker William Rutledge.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010
We’re on King Edward Terrace in front of the High Court and next to the National Gallery of Australia. We are open every day of the year from 10am to 5pm, except 25 December.
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
The ravishing muse
Edward Tom Uren AC (1921-2015), former Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, was a major campaigner on environmental and urban-planning issues and rights for veterans.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
In the one hundred years since Federation, Australia has produced twenty-five Prime Ministers of all shapes, shades and sizes
Amy Christine Rivett (1891–1962), doctor, contributed greatly to medicine and women's health.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Justice Ian Callinan 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Parking is available in our underground carpark every day of the week. Fees apply.
Alice Simpson, née Want was one of nine children of Randolph and Harriette Want, who married in Sydney in 1839.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Coleman Durkin trained at the Williamstown School of Design and started work in Melbourne as an apprentice to an engraver and then a jeweller.
27 portraits in the collection
Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922), signing his work 'Spy', was the most famous of the stable of caricaturists, including Sir Max Beerbohm and Carlo Pellegrini, who worked for the weekly English magazine Vanity Fair from 1869 to 1914.
31 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.
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
3 portraits in the collection
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
4 portraits in the collection
Maps and public transport information for your visit.
Samuel Calvert studied in his native London with his father, engraver Edward Calvert, before emigrating to Australia in 1848.
1 portrait in the collection
Algernon Hawkins Thomond Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore (1852–1930) was governor of South Australia from 1889 to 1895.
1 portrait in the collection
Esme Bell (1919-2018), daughter of inventor, animal fancier and philanthropist Sir Edward Hallstrom, wrote and illustrated a children’s book, The Rainbow Painter, which was published in 1939.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002
Frederick Woodhouse Senior, painter, lithographer and engraver, arrived in Melbourne in 1858 in the Parsee to establish himself as a horse portraitist.
1 portrait in the collection
David Jones (1793-1873), merchant, began his retail career in Pembrokeshire and London before emigrating to Sydney via Hobart.
1 portrait in the collection
Edith Knox (1855–1942), matriarch, was a daughter of Janet and Scottish-born merchant and businessman Joseph Scaife Willis, who was president of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce and a founding director of the Sydney Exchange Co.
1 portrait in the collection
William John Pickett Bedford (1805–1869) was the eldest of three children of Anglican clergyman, William Bedford (1781–1852), and his wife, Eleanor, and came to Van Diemen’s Land with his family in 1823 following the appointment of his father to a chaplaincy in the colony.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Penny Amberg and Andrew Bond 2001
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Peter Dombrovskis, photographer and environmental activist, was born of Latvian parents in a refugee camp in Wiesbaden at the end of World War 2.
1 portrait in the collection
L. Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015), former company director, was the Founding Patron of the National Portrait Gallery.
2 portraits in the collection
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (1900–2002) was born the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon.
2 portraits in the collection
Fanny Jane Marlay (1819–1848), was the second-eldest daughter of military officer, Edward Marlay (1792–1839).
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013
Victoria (1819–1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901.
8 portraits in the collection
George Richmond, son of the miniature painter Thomas Richmond, grew up in London, took early artistic instruction from his father and enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir John Longstaff, born in Clunes, Victoria, studied at the NGV school from 1883 to 1887 and thenceforth at Corman's in Paris.
1 portrait in the collection
Is he thinking of me?
Sir Edmund Barton GCMG KC PC (1849-1920), Australia’s first prime minister, was the youngest of nine children of a well-educated woman.
6 portraits in the collection
Justin O'Brien (1917-1996) was one of the major Australian artists of his generation.
3 portraits in the collection
Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015
Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the Wade and Hannah families 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Robert Williams Pohlman (1811–1877), judge, arrived in Melbourne in 1840 and with his brother acquired a sheep station, Darlington (later Glenhope), near Kyneton.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ross and Judy O'Connell 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ross and Judy O'Connell 2016
Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Naomi Watts (b. 1968), actress, was born in England and came to Australia from Wales at the age of fourteen.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Senator Dame Nancy Buttfield DBE 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Dame Nancy Buttfield DBE (1912–2005) was the first South Australian woman member of Federal Parliament.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001
This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.
Purchased 2006
The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.
This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.
During her time in Australian politics, Dame Nancy Buttfield was an impressive advocate for equality for women and was responsible for ending the marriage bar for women in the Public Service.
Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Sir Lawrence Hartnett (1898-1986), automotive engineer, was born in Woking, Surrey.
1 portrait in the collection
Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine.
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
The Rt Hon Sir John Gorton GCMG AC CH (1911–2002) was the nineteenth prime minister of Australia and the only senator yet to have served in the office.
5 portraits in the collection
Thomas Foster Chuck (1826-1898), photographer and entrepreneur, was born in London and arrived in Victoria in 1861.
4 portraits in the collection
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
This is the first major exhibition to examine photographic portraiture in Australia, from its beginnings in the early 1840s to the present day
Find a contact at the National Portrait Gallery.
Gift of the family of Aimée Viola Horsley, daughter of J.C. Williamson 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Packer family 2006
Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (1916-2014) was prime minister from the end of 1972 to the end of 1975.
12 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009.
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002
In this exhibition Sydney based photographer Peter Brew-Bevan brings together an intimate collection of works that highlight his passion for the genre of portraiture over the last 10 years
Sir Hartley Williams (1843–1929), judge, was the third child and second son of Edward Eyre Williams and his wife, Jessie.
1 portrait in the collection
With contributions from Julia Gillard, Fiona Gruber, and Dr Karl James, the National Portrait Gallery’s 50th edition of Portrait has something for everyone.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 2002
Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2000
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) is one of the most intriguing and talented figures in colonial Australian art.
4 portraits in the collection
Henry Wade (1810–1854), surveyor, was trained in surveying at Dublin College before being employed as a civilian assistant by the Royal Engineers Corps.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery Study Collection, Canberra
Gift of John Molony 2018
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
In 1988 philanthropists Gordon and Marilyn Darling decided to make an Australian portrait gallery a reality, overseeing the development of the 1992 touring exhibition Uncommon Australians.
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.
Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (1811–1861), pastoralist, politician and newspaper proprietor, was born in Sydney, several months after the death of his father, Edward Spencer Wills, a merchant and shipowner who'd arrived in New South Wales under a life sentence for highway robbery in 1799.
2 portraits in the collection
Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s
The National Portrait Gallery recently announced the finalists for the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2013.
Press releases and images downloads for media.
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.
Paul Kelly & The Portraits presents a multifaceted image of the performer over the course of his career.
From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.
Joanna Gilmour explores the enticing urban shadows cast by artists Martin Lewis and Edward Hopper.
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
Find out about our environment, security checks, potential hazards and more.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Joanna Gilmour writes about the portraiture of the colonial artist William Nicholas.
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.
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.
Isabella Louisa Parry (née Stanley, 1801–1839), amateur artist, community worker and collector, was the daughter of Sir John Stanley, first Baron Stanley of Alderley, a Whig politician and member of the Royal Society.
1 portrait in the collection
Michelle Fracaro describes Lionel Lindsay's woodcut The Jester (self-portrait).
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.
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers, explores the creative collaborations between four Australian artists living in Paris during the first years of the twentieth century.
Jerrold Nathan's portrait of Jessie Street shows the elegant side of a many-faceted lady.
Michelle Fracaro examines the life of World War II nurse Margaret Anderson, whose portrait by Napier Waller is in the NPG collection.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
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.
A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.
Wylie (c. 1824–unknown) is thought to have been born near King George’s Sound in south-west Western Australia, which would make him a Noongar man.
1 portrait in the collection
About the exhibition curator Claire Roberts, and writers Eugene Wang and Zhang Letian.
Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie 1887 by Frederick Woodhouse Snr. is a portrait of James Scobie, well known jockey and eminent horse trainer.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Two professionals; Australian surfer Layne Beachley and photographer Petrina Hicks, combine their strengths to achieve a remarkable portrait.
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.
An exhibition devoted to Hans Holbein's English commissions shows the portraitist bringing across the Channel new technical developments in art - with a dazzling facility.
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.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.
Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.
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.
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.
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.
Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.
Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.
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.
Three tiny sketches of Dame Nellie Melba in the NPG collection were created by the artist who was to go on to paint the most imposing representation of the singer: Rupert Bunny.
Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?
Krysia Kitch celebrates Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.
Karen Vickery on Chang the Chinese giant in Australia.
Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.
The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.
How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.
