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Profile of a marriage

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the lives of Sir George Grey and his wife Eliza, the subjects of a pair of wax medallions in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Mrs Grey, c. 1845

Purchased 1999

Duty bound

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.

Sir George Grey, c. 1845

Purchased 1999

Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand, 1861

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

Nothing black and white about the Greys

Marriage: a prolonged disaster

Portrait in grey

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida], 1860s-1870s

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Professor Suzanne Cory AC FAA FRS, 2016

Gift of the artist 2017

Robert Carter, c. 1910

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2012

Robert Hunter, July 1978, 1978 (printed 2012)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

James, Rebecca and Sam Mapu, 2021

Purchased 2022

Portrait of Dr Kurt von Stutterheim with Mrs von Stutterheim, c. 1958

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Standing in the now and looking to the future

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne, 1839

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

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

Lunch at Fran's

The Assumption of Virginity, 2014

Finalist, MDPA 2014

Sir Macfarlane Burnet, late 1960s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998

Sir Macfarlane Burnet, late 1970s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998

Sidney Nolan, 1964

Purchased 2003

Breakfast with bats, 2017

An Arctic Time Signature

Finalist, MDPA 2015

Nolan Heads

Nolan Heads will focus on the portraiture of one of Australia's most original painters and one of the few to have achieved an international reputation

Home 6, Hedy Zahalka, 2006

Sir Macfarlane Burnet, 1968

Purchased with funds provided by Sir Roderick Carnegie 2003

Richard Butler, 1859

Purchased 2019

Annie Butler, 1859

Purchased 2019

Sir John Gorton, n.d.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

John Gorton, 1997

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Sir Gustav Nossal, 2004

Purchased with funds provided by Karen McLeod Adair and Anthony Adair 2004

Sir Gustav Nossal, 1979 (printed 1981)

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003

Jacques Miller, 2012

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Radclyffe Hall

Police (Lieut Colonel Edmund Yeamans Walcott Henderson), 1875

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

Dame Jean Macnamara, c. 1930

Gift of Merran Samuel (nee Connor) 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Portrait of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, 2000

Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2000

The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë; Emily Brontë; Charlotte Brontë)

Storytelling

The fourth row of paintings interweave Ngarranggarni, memories, relationships and Country.

Sir Gustav Nossal, 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Karen McLeod Adair and Anthony Adair 1999

Architecture

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

Very fine and very like

When did notions of very fine and very like become separate qualities of a portrait? And what happens to 'very like' in the age of photographic portraiture?

Husbands and Wives

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

Sidney Nolan, Western Australia, 1962 (printed 2000)

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.

A colourful story from Sideshow Alley

From infamous bushranger to oyster shop display, curator Jo Gilmour explores the life of George Melville.

Sir William Dargie

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

Sir Colin Syme, 1970

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

Equation of a life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton, 2016

Commissioned with the assistance of funds provided by Janet Whiting AM, Philip Lukies and Antonia Syme 2016

In the round

Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.

Alienation

Segregated from their fellow humans in cellophane prisons, reference points are removed, so it is not certain whether these naked figures could be unwrapped, are about to be subsumed, or will forever be suspended in a plastic stasis.

Sir Macfarlane Burnet, 1960-1961

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Professor Derek Denton, 2009

Gift of Professor Derek Denton AC and Dame Margaret Scott AC 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Australia and the Nobel Prize

This unique exhibition will give an insight into the private lives, pursuits and work of all the Nobel laureates associated with Australia

Mark Strizic

This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.

So Fine

This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.

Observation point

Laith McGregor's fascination with the human form stems from an imaginary childhood friend.

Recognition

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

Judy Cassab

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.

Australian of the Year

The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.

Clifton Pugh

This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.

Observation point

The Australian painter Ben Quilty discusses his approach to portraiture.

Nicholas Harding

Nicholas Harding: 28 portraits features paintings of Robert Drewe, John Bell and Hugo Weaving alongside gorgeously coloured recent oil portraits, delicate gouaches and bold ink and charcoal drawings.

Tom Wills, c. 1857 (printed c. 1905-1910)

Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Equation of a life – a portrait of Derek Denton

The National Portrait Gallery, has welcomed the newest portrait commission of Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC by Evert Ploeg.

To Look Within

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

Birds of a feather

Charting a path from cockatiel to finch, Annette Twyman explores her family portraits and stories.

Open Air

Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.

A man of superior attainments

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

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

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.

With a Little Help from my Friends

The story behind the acquisition of the portrait of Danish architect Jørn Utzon.

Jude Rae

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

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

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.

Dr Brown and Green Old Time Waltz, 1983

Gift of the Estate of Harold Thornton 2009

First Ladies

First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.

Primed

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

The Royal she

Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.

Australian Visit

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.

Confessional conversations

Fiona Gruber investigates the work of Australian painter Kristin Headlam.

Time and light

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.

Cultural kaleidoscope

The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.

Hope for kindness

Sarah Engledow arrives at the junction of fate and hope in Sarah Ball’s poignant Immigrants series.

The existential lens

Stephen Zagala discusses Richard Avedon’s work from an Australian perspective.

Queen Victoria

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

Drawn from life

Penelope Grist discovers the rich narratives in Peter Wegner’s series of centenarian portraits.

Inditchenous beestes of New Olland

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

Eko Nugroho

Born and raised in Yogyakarta, Eko Nugroho (b. 1977) entered the art scene at the height of Reformasi.

Memories

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

Fiona McMonagle

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

Exhibition themes

The four main themes of the exhibition: About face, Body politic, Skin deep, and Self reflex.

The highest honour

Bringing eminent scientist Frank Fenner and artist Jude Rae together for the National Portrait Gallery commission was like matchmaking.

20 20

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

Where the wild things are

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

The essence of you

Lee Tulloch remembers her great friend NIDA-trained actor turned photographer Stuart Campbell.

Indexing, the art of

The first index I created was for my first book, and, to my astonishment, that was almost twenty-five years ago.

Living landscape

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

Painting mates

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.

The boy, the bed and the gun

Christopher Chapman contemplates the provocative performance art of Chris Burden. 

Hema Upadhyay

Hema Upadhyay was born in Baroda in 1972 and moved to in Mumbai in 1998. Incorporating painting, installation, sculpture and printmaking, Upadhyay’s work often addresses issues related to migration, especially the experiences of those living in urban communities.

Desperately seeking Sonia

Esther Erlich’s portrait of Lady McMahon.

The personal and the historical

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.

Naked nostalgia

Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.

Through thick and thin

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

Ken Done

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

The Wentworths – Hidden in Plain Sight

Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.

Material culture

The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.

Hired guns, bounty hunters and horse whisperers

Jude Rae contemplates the portrait commission.

A reflection on conversation pieces

There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.

All dressed up

Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?

You beauty

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

Money for Myth

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

Poise and Carats

I keep going back to Cartier: The Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia next door, and, within the exhibition, to Princess Marie Louise’s diamond, pearl and sapphire Indian tiara (1923), surely one of the most superb head ornaments ever conceived.

Drawing inspiration

Christopher Chapman absorbs the gentle touch of Don Bachardy’s portraiture.

Hard truths

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

Lauded legacy

Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.

Presence and absence

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

A feast of friends

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

Anna Culliton

Anna Culliton never had a colouring-in book when she was little. Her parents –Tony, a filmmaker, and Stephanie, a painter – wouldn’t let her have one. Instead, they insisted on her drawing her own pictures to colour-in. 

Through blue eyes

Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.

In the flesh

An exhibition of humanness in ten themes by Penelope Grist.

The art of Inner Worlds

Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

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

Study in scarlet

Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.

Regarding Henrys

Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.

Portraiture in a Bleak House

It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.

The silent partner

One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

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

Anangu landscape learning

Angus' initial perception of Uluru shifts, as he comes to see it as central to the entire order of Anangu life.

Everybody, look serious

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

Some prime ministers

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.