Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Albert Falzon's photograph of Australian surfer Nat Young captures what it is to be a surfing hero.
Sir George Young (1732–1810), naval officer, first went to sea at the age of fourteen and saw action in Europe and India before joining the East India Company’s marine in 1753.
1 portrait in the collection
John Young, mezzotint engraver, studied under Valentine Green then worked with several of the painters who collaborated with Green, notably Benjamin West, John Hoppner and Johann Gerhard Huck.
1 portrait in the collection
Simone Young AM (b. 1961) is one of the leading conductors of her generation.
1 portrait in the collection
Angus Young (b. 1955), guitarist and songwriter, was a founding member of Australia's most successful ever band, AC/DC.
3 portraits in the collection
Sir John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar (1807-1876), governor of New South Wales from 1861 to 1867, was the son of a director of the East India Co.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Full time professional artist represented by the Woollahra Times Gallery in Sydney and Hart Galleries in Queensland..
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Witzig 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Gift of the artist 2008
Commissioned with funds from the Farrell Family Foundation and the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002
Gift of the artist 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Purchased 2010
An exhibition of photographs by John Witzig, drawings by Nicholas Harding and film footage by Albe Falzon, expressive of the free-spirited, hot-blooded energy of Australian surfers under the cloud of conscription to Vietnam.
Penelope Grist speaks to Bill Henson and Simone Young to discover the origins of the artist’s stunning photographic triptych.
Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Gary Ede, born in California, began his photographic career in London in the 1970s, photographing authors and celebrities for book publishers.
20 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Gary Ella (b. 1960) is a Yuin and Bidjigal man who grew up in La Perouse with eleven siblings.
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
Gary Grealy (b. 1950) has established himself over many years as one of Sydney’s leading commercial and portrait photographers with work commissioned by leading advertising agencies and major national and international clients.
11 portraits in the collection
Gary Catalano (1947-2002), poet and critic, was educated at Sydney’s Trinity Grammar and worked in a variety of jobs before a series of Australia Council grants in the late 1970s enabled him to devote himself full-time to writing.
3 portraits in the collection
Gary Foley (b. 1950) is a Gumbainggir activist, actor, historian, curator and academic.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2018
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams in memory of Peta Brownbrooke-Benjamins 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2018
Photographer Gary Grealy discusses his passion for portraiture.
Purchased 2011
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Dr Gene Sherman AM and Patrick Corrigan AM 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Purchased with funds provided by Dr Gene Sherman AM 2016
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2018
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Patrick Corrigan AM 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Dr Gene Sherman AM and Patrick Corrigan AM 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist and Anne Grealy 2016
Purchased with funds provided by Dr Gene Sherman AM 2016
Commissioned with funds from the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 2018
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Patrick Corrigan AM 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Gary Grealy on his portrait photography.
After months of anticipation, the winner for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 has been announced with renowned Sydney portrait photographer Gary Grealy taking out the award. George Fetting, guest judge for the 2017 Prize, was entranced with the evocative nature of the winning portrait Richard Morecroft and Alison Mackay.
Gift of Richard Wherrett 1998. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Dr Sarah Engledow explores the early life and career of John Brack.
An interview with Australian artist and collector of quirky artefacts, Martin Sharp.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
![Nouvelle-Hollane: N.lle Galles de Sud. Ourou-Maraé, dit bull-dog par leas Anglais, Jeune guerrier de la Tribu des Gwea-Gal. (New Holland: New South Wales. Ouron Marae, called Bull Dog by the English. a young Warrior of the Gwea Gal tribe) [From 'Voyage de decouvertes aux terres australies' by Captain Nicolas Baudin, 1800-04]](/files/e/4/f/c/i8432-sl.jpg "Nouvelle-Hollane: N.lle Galles de Sud. Ourou-Maraé, dit bull-dog par leas Anglais, Jeune guerrier de la Tribu des Gwea-Gal. (New Holland: New South Wales. Ouron Marae, called Bull Dog by the English. a young Warrior of the Gwea Gal tribe) [From 'Voyage de decouvertes aux terres australies' by Captain Nicolas Baudin, 1800-04]")
![Nouvelle-Hollane: N.lle Galles de Sud. Ourou-Maraé, dit bull-dog par leas Anglais, Jeune guerrier de la Tribu des Gwea-Gal. (New Holland: New South Wales. Ouron Marae, called Bull Dog by the English. a young Warrior of the Gwea Gal tribe) [From 'Voyage de decouvertes aux terres australies' by Captain Nicolas Baudin, 1800-04]](/files/e/4/f/c/i8432-ths.jpg "Nouvelle-Hollane: N.lle Galles de Sud. Ourou-Maraé, dit bull-dog par leas Anglais, Jeune guerrier de la Tribu des Gwea-Gal. (New Holland: New South Wales. Ouron Marae, called Bull Dog by the English. a young Warrior of the Gwea Gal tribe) [From 'Voyage de decouvertes aux terres australies' by Captain Nicolas Baudin, 1800-04]")
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Phillip Noyce (b. 1950), director, was part of the first student intake at the Australian Film and Television School in 1973.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Young love lost, treasured
A new portrait commission of Australian Rugby great, Ken Catchpole OAM by Gary Grealy will be officially unveiled on 3 December.
Mark Ella AM (b. 1959) was one of four Australians named amongst the eleven inaugural ‘legends’ of the International Rugby Board Hall of Fame in 2013.
1 portrait in the collection
A dynamic young people's art exhibition, Hearts/Heads: Headspace II explored portraiture, produced by students from year 7 to year 12
Portraits from The Movement is the first comprehensive survey of photographs from the Juno Gemes archive, which has supported the Aboriginal struggle for justice in Australia from 1978 to the present day.
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.
Larry Clark's black-and-white documentary images of young outsiders reveal raw feelings.
Marcia Ella (b. 1963) was the first Indigenous woman to play international netball for Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
John Witzig, photographer, writer and designer, contributed his first piece to Surfing World in 1963.
5 portraits in the collection
Finalist, DPA 2017
Single channel digital video
Noah Taylor (b. 1969) left school at 16 to join Melbourne's St Martin's Youth Theatre.
1 portrait in the collection
Using ochres collected on her country in Western Australia’s East Kimberley, Shirley Purdie’s self-portrait is a kaleidoscope of traditional Gija stories and Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) passed down to her.
Photographer Bill Henson describes creating his three part portrait of Simone Young.
Gift of the artist 2004
Sport was a potent means by which, in the lead up to Federation, Australians began to assert a sense of themselves as youthful, manly and athletic – the products of an equally young and virile new nation.
John Marsden (b. 1950), children's writer and social commentator, grew up in country Victoria and Tasmania and then attended the Kings School in Parramatta.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir William Windeyer (1834-1897) was a politician and judge. One of the first undergraduates to study at the University of Sydney, he developed a particular interest in education and the rights of women - he was responsible for the Married Women's Property Act of 1879, and was Founding Chairman of the university's Women's College.
4 portraits in the collection
Rolf de Heer (b. 1951) was born in Heemskerk, Holland, and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959.
1 portrait in the collection
Paul Cézanne, Bill Henson and Simone Young, Australian cinema’s iconic women, and feminist portraits by Kate Just.
Living for the moment
Stevie Wright (1947-2015), singer songwriter, came to Australia from England at the age of nine.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Accomplished illustrator, painter, writer and diarist, set designer and one of the most distinguished photographers of the twentieth century, Cecil Beaton is renowned for his portraits of well known faces from the worlds of fashion, literature, and film.
Raelene Sharp (b. 1957), artist, was born in Melbourne and began her career as a graphic artist in advertising.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2013
Progressive partnership
Gift of the family of Sir Victor and Lady Windeyer 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Sir Jack Brabham OBE (1926-2014), racing car driver, was born in Hurstville, NSW, and studied mechanical engineering before working as a mechanic for the RAAF during WW2.
2 portraits in the collection
Exile burnishes love’s bond
Elaine Pelot-Syron grew up in Miami and came to Australia to teach English in 1971.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds from the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series 2015
A penny for their thoughts
John Darling (1923-2015), businessman, company director and media producer was the son of Harold Gordon Darling, chair of BHP.
1 portrait in the collection
Peter van der Veer, photographer, designer and painter, studied at Prahran College in the 1970s.
1 portrait in the collection
Outsiders tend to give Canberra a bad rap: sterile, plagued by politicians, a comatose capital for professionals and academics. Nick Cave once said he didn’t like the city because there were too many punks.
Ronald 'Bon' Scott (1946-1980) had come to Australia with his family in 1952, aged six, had lived in Melbourne and Fremantle, where he joined a pipe band; had dropped out of school at fifteen; and had spent some time in custody.
1 portrait in the collection
Paris based Australian photographer and filmmaker Nathalie Latham has an ongoing interest in the creative achievements of other Australian artists living in various locations around the globe.
Stevie Wright (1947-2015), singer-songwriter, came to Australia from England at the age of nine.
Born: 1947, Gilbun – Mabel Downs Station, WA
Works: Warmun, WA
Gift of the artist 2004
Gary ‘Angry’ Anderson AM (b. 1947) is an Australian rock singer and television presenter.
1 portrait in the collection
Two of the music industry’s highest-selling performers originated in suburban Australia. The Bee Gees started out in Brisbane, for instance, and AC/DC played their first gigs at a nightclub in inner Sydney.
At the end of 2007 the National Portrait Gallery launched the inaugural National Youth Self Portrait Prize and artists aged between eighteen and twenty-five were invited to submit self portraits using a variety of media including drawing, painting, printmaking and traditional or digital photography.
Masters of modern Indonesian portraiture presents key modernist paintings and drawings along with a selection of contemporary works.
Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2009 Prize.
An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.
Victorian-born Alice Mills was one of a significant number of women photographers in business between 1900 and 1920.
1 portrait in the collection
![John Mitchel with John Martin and Father John Kenyon [the three Johns]](/files/e/4/6/6/i14565-sl.jpg "John Mitchel with John Martin and Father John Kenyon [the three Johns]")
![John Mitchel with John Martin and Father John Kenyon [the three Johns]](/files/e/4/6/6/i14565-ths.jpg "John Mitchel with John Martin and Father John Kenyon [the three Johns]")
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
At twenty years old, Lleyton Hewitt AM (b. 1981) was the youngest male tennis player ever to be ranked world number one.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Purchased with funds provided by Jan and Gary Whyte, Brian and Barbara Crisp, Gloria Kurtze, Jonathon Mills and Lawsoft Pty Ltd 2011
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2010
The sixth in the National Portrait Gallery’s series of student exhibitions, will feature 200 portrait artworks, both two and three-dimensional, from secondary school students from across Australia
The late Australian photographer Stuart Campbell produced superb photographs of Australian actors of stage and screen.
Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.
Brian McInerney, professional photographer, was a young assistant photographer at Channel Seven in Sydney in the 1960s.
2 portraits in the collection
Chris Gentle (b.1939) arrived in Australia from the United Kingdom in 1967 and is a painter, lecturer and writer.
1 portrait in the collection
Finalist, DPA 2017
Single channel HD digital video
Artist Tessa Jones recalls creating her portrait of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock singer and music producer, Ross Wilson.
Focussing on the wide-ranging theme of loss and absence, this exhibition provides a moving ‘portrait’ of loss during the First World War on the Australian home front. Powerful symbolic images, including contemporary works, evoke the emotional intensity of loss. All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War is the National Portrait Gallery’s contribution to the Anzac Centenary.
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a focus exhibition of captivating portraits by renowned artist Arthur Boyd, titled Mysterious eyes: Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945.
Anthony Browell reminisces about meeting Rose Lindsay, the wife of Australian artist Norman Lindsay.
Gift of John McPhee 2018
Adam Perkins, an Arrernte and Kalkadoon man, is the son of Indigenous rights campaigner and bureaucrat Charles Perkins AO.
1 portrait in the collection
Reshid Bey was a Victorian painter and teacher. Born in Berlin when his father was Turkish ambassador there, he came to Australia, his mother’s homeland, when he was a young man.
3 portraits in the collection
An interview with the photographer.
Rineke Dijkstra's photographic series of her subject, Almerisa Sehric, evolved over the course of 14 years.
Tan Le (b. 1977) is an innovator in the field of neurotechnology. Le arrived in Australia at age four with her mother, sister, grandmother, aunt and uncle, all refugees who had undertaken the perilous boat journey from Vietnam.
1 portrait in the collection
Donald Friend (1915-1989), painter, writer and diarist, studied at the RAS and Dattilo-Rubbo’s school in Sydney before spending 1935 and 1936 at the Westminster School in London.
2 portraits in the collection
Tony Mitchell was in a band called Wheelbarrow, who released a single, 'Dame Zara' before Mitchell left to join Harry Young and Sabbath.
3 portraits in the collection
Headspace 7: Me and My Place, the seventh in the National Portrait Gallery's series of student exhibitions, will be presented at Commonwealth Place. Me and My Place is the curatorial theme for the 2006 exhibition.
Casey Stoner (b. 1985), the 2008 Young Australian of the Year, won the MotoGP World Championship motorcycle competition held at Phillip Island in 2007.
1 portrait in the collection
For many years Elizabeth Chong has shared her love of Chinese cuisine with Australian audiences.
1 portrait in the collection
Janette Howard (b. 1943), wife of former prime minister the Hon. John Howard OM AC, was born in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Finalist, DPA 2016
Melissa Beowulf grew up in Sydney, where she became a graphic artist.
2 portraits in the collection
David Combe (b.1943) became interested in politics at Adelaide University and was motivated to join the ALP in 1962, partly through his friendship with Don Dunstan.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
1 portrait in the collection
Australia’s passion for rock ‘n roll was kindled by American and British acts in the 1950s and 60s. The novel genre’s driving, licentious rhythms and voices captured imaginations and libidos, not to mention aspiring young musicians.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lawrence Daws 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Contemporary Australian Portraits is a cross section, a sampling, of some of the present-day directions in Australian portrait practice
Purchased 2018
Chris Chapman explains how Matthys Gerber bridges the gap between abstraction and portraiture.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004
Art by Warwick Baker, Chris Burden, Larry Clark, Rozalind Drummond, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Collier Schorr explores personal relations, individual expression and fluid identity.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
This is the first time Collier Schorr's photographs, which explore gender and identity, have been shown in Australia.
Christopher Chapman immerses himself in Larry Clark’s field of vision.
POL was a magazine that ran from 1969 to 1986
Lindy Morrison joined The Go-Betweens as drummer in 1980. After the band split up in early 1990, she teamed up with another ex Go-Between, Amanda Brown, in a group called Cleopatra Wong.
1 portrait in the collection
James Gleeson AO was Australia's best-known surrealist artist, and from the late 1930s onwards he was a tireless supporter of Australian modern art.
3 portraits in the collection
Thousand mile stare provides a unique portrait of people of rural Australia
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Born in Sydney, Garry Shead studied at the National Art School in 1961-2.
3 portraits in the collection
Kylie Kwong was born into a fourth generation Australian Chinese family in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (1821-1897), governor, attended the Royal Military Academy before being commissioned to the Royal Engineers in 1839.
1 portrait in the collection
Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.
Werner Baer MBE (1914-1992) grew up in Berlin, where he studied piano with Artur Schnabel and worked at the Berlin Stadtsoper.
1 portrait in the collection
Percy Spence, born in Balmain, grew up in Fiji and began art classes in Sydney in about 1888.
1 portrait in the collection
Michael Desmond profiles a handful of the entrants in first National Photographic Portrait Prize and notes emerging themes and categories.
As a young reporter for the Melbourne Age, John Hamilton (b.1940 UK, migrated to Aust.
1 portrait in the collection
Dr Christopher Chapman examines Scott Redford's photographic portrait of Australian surfer David 'Rasta' Rastovich.
Finalist, DPA 2017
Single channel HD digital video
Jacques Etienne Victor Arago (1790-1855), author, artist and explorer, travelled with Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet on his 1817 voyage around the world on the Uranie.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
The second annual brand-awareness snapshot of the National Portrait Gallery is again positive, with indicators moving in the right direction – for the Gallery and for Australia’s cultural engagement.
Press releases and image downloads for media.
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
Georgie Swift (1920-2008), journalist, publicist and chatelaine, was born Georgette Marie Hiro Matsui to a French-born mother and Japanese father in Sydney after the First World War.
1 portrait in the collection
John Firth-Smith (b. 1943) is a Sydney abstract painter. In the early 1960s he won a number of 'young artist' prizes for his paintings of yachts on Sydney Harbour, but by 1968 his work was becoming increasingly abstract, featuring large fields of opaque colour.
2 portraits in the collection
Peter Brock (1945-2006), a professional racing driver from 1972 to 1997, was undoubtedly Australia's best known and most popular motor sports personality.
1 portrait in the collection
James Herbert 'Herb' Elliott AC MBE (b. 1938), runner, won the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the Rome Olympics in 1960.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Introduction The National Portrait Gallery’s photographic exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus explores various interpretations of Australian sporting men and women.
Hari Ho left his native Malaysia as a young man to travel and work throughout the US, Europe and Asia.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rex Dupain 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Philip Gudthaykudthay (b. 1935) Liyagalawumirr (Yolgnu) bark painter, worked as a young man as a stockman, fencer and crocodile hunter around Milingimbi and Ramingining.
1 portrait in the collection
Matthew Reilly (b. 1974) is a successful writer of popular fiction novels, characterised by suspenseful narratives and futuristic scenarios.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2004
Unique experiences and programs for enquiring young minds, teachers and lifelong learners.
Desired by millions
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J Sages Family Trust 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Nathalie Latham's exhibition Australia's Creative Diaspora explores Australians, in the arts, who live and work internationally.
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.
Art, war, scandal
Gordon Watson AM (1921-1999), pianist and teacher, taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 1964 to 1986 and was head of its keyboard department when he retired.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
A one-in-a-thousand woman
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Due 2010
doppelgänger is the second in a series of virtual exhibitions held by the National Portrait Gallery that explore contemporary notions of portraiture in the online environment.
Brett Whiteley AO, artist, displayed a brilliant talent for drawing as a Sydney private schoolboy.
11 portraits in the collection
Heide Smith took up photography as a young girl in Germany in 1948, when her uncle gave her a Zeiss Ikon camera.
3 portraits in the collection
Rose Byrne (b. 1979), actor, was raised in the Sydney suburbs of Balmain and Newtown, and joined the Australian Theatre for Young People at the age of eight.
1 portrait in the collection
Facing Memory: Headspace 4 provides us with valuable insights into the thoughts, creative processes and art-making practices of secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 from sixty-two schools in the Australian Capital Territory, regional New South Wales and Victoria
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
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
David 'Rasta' Rastovich (b. 1979), professional surfer and conservation activist, was born in rural New Zealand.
1 portrait in the collection
In April 2006 the National Portrait Gallery showcased Australian portraits at the Fredenksborg Castle in Denmark.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Read the full requirements for entering the prize.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J Sages Family Trust 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Cutler family 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J Sages Family Trust 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Tjayanka Woods (d. 2014) was a senior Pitjantjatjara artist and cultural custodian.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2001
Australian photographer Karin Catt has photographed world leaders, a host of rock stars and Oscar-winning compatriots Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, and Cate Blanchett.
Sir Bernard Heinze AC KT (1894-1982) was a conductor who brought classical music to the general public and promoted the works of Australian composers.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Lee Lin Chin, stylesetter and former broadcaster, was born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, where in 1968 she began working in television and radio.
2 portraits in the collection
Feeling sexy
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Georges Antoni (b. 1975), fashion photographer, grew up in a small town in central Queensland.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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
Sir Cecil Colville (1891-1984), medical practitioner, was the first president of the Australian Medical Association.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2013
Talented wife for a talented husband
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Theresa Byrnes (b. 1969) is a painter, writer and performance artist who first exhibited her paintings in 1986 at the age of sixteen.
1 portrait in the collection
The exhibition Sages examines the process of portrait making through four large-scale portraits of women by Jenny Sages, paired with intimate preparatory drawings.
An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.
A bond in song
The novelist Colleen McCullough (1937–2015) was born in Wellington, New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
Michael Desmond explores the life of ballerina Irina Baranova through the portrait by Australian artist Jenny Sages.
Christopher Chapman looks at influences and insight in the formative years of Arthur Boyd.
A short visual essay of some of the works in the National Youth Self Portrait Prize 2010.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Office romance
Infatuation and (ill-fated) exploration
The National Portrait Gallery's annual survey of student self portraiture highlights the processes of personal inquiry through portraiture by students from all levels across Australia.
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Julia Matthews (1842-1876), actress and singer, came to Australia as a girl with her parents, and made her debut at Sydney's Royal Victoria Theatre in 1854, aged twelve.
1 portrait 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
Artist Henry Mundy arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 and took up a position as teacher of drawing, French and music at Ellinthorp Hall, a school near Ross established ‘with a view to the improvement of Young Ladies’.
4 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rex Dupain 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rex Dupain 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Aspects of singer songwriter Paul Kelly’s performance persona are communicated by portraits selected from a range of artists and leading music photographers in this focus exhibition.
Purchased 2008
John Farnham (b.1949) has sustained a successful career in the Australian music industry for more than 40 years.
1 portrait in the collection
Scottish-born photographer Nikki Toole (b. 1965) studied film and photography in London and Edinburgh before moving to Melbourne.
3 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2005
Richard Larter (1929-2014) was born in London, where he encountered and was influenced by the new generation of young British Pop artists of the 1950s and early 1960s.
6 portraits in the collection
Gladys Moncrieff (1892-1976), soprano, grew up in Queensland, where she first toured as 'Little Gladys - The Australian Wonder Child' with a small musical road show.
4 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Ada Bird Petyarre (c. 1930–2009), painter and printmaker, was an Anmatyerre woman from the Northern Territory, and one of seven sisters who all became notable artists.
1 portrait in the collection
Olivia Newton-John AC DBE (b. 1948) came to Australia as a five-year-old with her father, Brin Newton John, who had worked on the Enigma project at Bletchley, and her mother, Irene Born, who was the daughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2021
Purchased 2021
Lawrence English, Ellis Hutch and Lee Grant talk about the works they created for All that fall.
Purchased 2012
Headspace showcases portrait art produced by secondary students from Year 7 to Year 12 in Government, Catholic and Independent schools in Canberra and its surrounding regions extending to Wollongong, Deniliquin, Leeton, Crookwell, Bombala, Narooma and Albury
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2004
Robin Sellick (b. 1967), photographer, is well known for his distinctive portraits of Australian actors, musicians, politicians and athletes.
17 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Ray Marginson AM 2001
When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
Gift of the family of Graham Thorley in his memory and in tribute to Marilyn Rowe 2010
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
Eleven works by Brett Whiteley, centred around his scintillating 'Patrick White at Centennial Park 1979-1980'.
The bronze sculpture by Julie Edgar reflects through both the material and representation the determined and straight-forward nature of Brabham.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Caird and Melbourne Herald Sun 2003
Quentin Bryce AD CVO (b. 1942), academic, lawyer and community and human rights advocate, was the first woman to be appointed governor-general of Australia.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Former National Portrait Gallery Curator Magda Keaney was a member of the selection panel of the Schwepes Photographic Portrait Prize 2004 at the National Portrait Gallery London.
Mervyn Bishop (b. 1945), a Murri photographer, began a cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963.
6 portraits 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.
Janet Holmes à Court AC (b. 1943), businesswoman and philanthropist, graduated in science and worked as a teacher before marrying young Perth lawyer Robert Holmes à Court in 1966.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2015
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Peter G. Drewett is a Grafton craftsman. Drewett grew up in difficult economic circumstances in Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Wayne Lynch (b. 1951), surfer and surfboard shaper, grew up in Lorne, Victoria, not far from Bells Beach.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2013
Purchased 2011
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2005
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sally Douglas 2009
Gift of the Estate of Nicolaas Van Der Waarden 2013
Purchased 1999
Bill Beach (1850-1935), sculler, came to New South Wales as a young boy with his English parents, who settled at Albion Park, NSW.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2004
Gift of the artist 2021
Gift of Dr Gene Sherman AM and Brian Sherman AM 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Community, arts, activism
The Hon. John Howard OM AC (b. 1939) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned 2011
Purchased 2014
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 2004
Hélène Kirsova (1910–1962), dancer and founder of Kirsova Ballet, the first professional ballet company in Australia.
4 portraits in the collection
Jarinyanu David Downs (c. 1925–1995), Wangkajunga/Walmajarri painter, printmaker and preacher, lived a traditional life in the Great Sandy Desert of West Australia until he was a young man.
2 portraits in the collection
The Darling Prize is a new annual prize for Australian portrait painters, painting Australian sitters. The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015
I think the most important thing in capturing candid shots is to never take the photo when people are expecting you to press the shutter. The more poignant moments are not the stock standard images of people looking at the camera smiling but after or before when they are really interacting with each other.
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004
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
Patrick McCaughey explores a striking Boyd self portrait.
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Kenneth Rowell AM (1920–1999), artist and theatre designer, grew up in Melbourne and became intent on a career in the theatre at a young age.
2 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
We are grateful to our supporters who help us care for, exhibit and study the Gallery's Collection and to offer programs that bring our portraits to life.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2005
The second instalment of a display featuring bold contemporary portraits drawn from the collection. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
This is the first in a series of National Portrait Gallery exhibitions to survey the portraits painted by artists who are not thought of, primarily, as portrait painters
David Rankin OAM (b. 1946) came to Australia with his English parents at the age of two in 1948.
1 portrait 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
Lewis Morley has a great eye for a shot and a sharp ear for a pun
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
Gift of Jeannie Highet and Kim Buchan 2012
A newly acquired work by Stella Bowen adds to the National Portrait Gallery's growing collection of important Australian self-portraits.
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Leo Christie 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Alistair McGhie reminisces about three Australian rugby greats commissioned for the Portrait Gallery collection by Patrick Corrigan AM.
Walter Langhammer went to India before World War 2, fleeing the Nazis in Austria.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Mitch Cairns (b. 1984), painter and cartoonist, won the 2017 Archibald Prize with a portrait of his partner, artist Agatha Gothe-Snape.
1 portrait in the collection
The third row of paintings come from Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).
Gift of the artist 2004
Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 1999
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2019
Purchased 2011
John Bertrand AO (b. 1946) is a successful yachtsman, Olympian, sports administrator, businessman and philanthropist.
1 portrait in the collection
Jessica Mauboy (b. 1989), Darwin-born singer, songwriter and actor, is a descendant of the KuKu Yalanji nation of Far North Queensland.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Madeleine Howell 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2015
Purchased 2017
The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Alan Lowe and Marian Lowe 2000
Gift of the artist 2004
Albert Falzon (b. 1945), film maker and photographer, was in the Australian army and worked for Australian Surfing World magazine before co-founding the Australian surf magazine Tracks in 1970.
1 portrait in the collection
Thea Proctor (1879-1966), artist and stylesetter, trained at the Julian Ashton School before leaving Australia for London in 1903.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2019
Headspace5: Crystal Gazing highlighted the diversity of materials and techniques that young people use for self expression. David Sequeira presents a personal view of three works in the exhibition.
The fourth row of paintings interweave Ngarranggarni, memories, relationships and Country.
Kondelea Elliott (1917–2011), union official and women's rights lobbyist, was the daughter of a Greek migrant father, Nicholas Xenodohos, who had come from the Queensland canefields via Sydney, and an Australian mother who had left school at the age of eight and performed in a circus.
1 portrait in the collection
Tom LeGarde (1931–2021) and Ted LeGarde (1931–2018), 'The LeGarde Twins', were early pioneers of country music.
1 portrait in the collection
Rhoda Roberts AO (b. 1960) is a Bundjalung woman from northern New South Wales, and a producer, director, writer, broadcaster, performer and arts executive.
1 portrait in the collection
Lewis Morley (1925–2013) established his reputation as one of the key British photographers of the 1960s and is known for his iconic image of a nude Christine Keeler straddling an Arne Jacobsen chair.
50 portraits in the collection
Pat Mackie (1914–2009), union leader, led the Mount Isa strike of 1964–65 that polarised the town and almost bankrupted Mount Isa Mining.
1 portrait in the collection
Ted LeGarde (1931–2018) and Tom LeGarde (1931–2021), ‘The LeGarde Twins’, were early pioneers of country music.
1 portrait in the collection
Murray Bail (b. 1941), writer, was born in Adelaide and spent several years in India and England in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Simon Tedeschi (b. 1981), award-winning classical pianist, grew up in Sydney, and essentially abandoned his school lessons as an adolescent to concentrate on his piano studies with Neta Maughan.
1 portrait in the collection
Jessica Smith looks at the 'fetching' portrait of Tasmania's first Anglican Bishop, Francis Russell Nixon by George Richmond
The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2008
Conly John Paget Dease (1906-1979), actor and broadcaster, spent thirty years as one of the signature voices of the ‘Golden Age’ of Australian radio.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lewis Morley 2004
Gift of the artist 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2006
Martin Sharp (1942-2013), printmaker, painter, cartoonist, designer, songwriter and film-maker, is one of Australia's foremost pop artists.
7 portraits in the collection
Layne Beachley AO (b. 1972), former surfer and businesswoman, is the world's most successful female professional surfer.
2 portraits in the collection
Lauren Dalla examines the life of Australian painter Roy de Maistre and his portrait by Jean Shepeard.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley AC MBE (b. 1951), Wiradjuri tennis champion, was the number one women's tennis player in the world in 1971 and 1976.
3 portraits in the collection
Nicholas Paspaley Jnr AC (b. 1948) is chair of the Paspaley Group of Companies, with interests in pearling, aviation, retail, pastoral holdings and commercial properties in Australia and internationally.
2 portraits in the collection
Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford (1920/1924–2007), also known as Goowoomji or Guwumji, artist and Gija elder, was born on Bedford Downs Station, near Warmun in Western Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Cate Blanchett AC (b. 1969), actor and humanitarian, graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992, joined the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and soon received the Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle award for Best Newcomer for Kafka Dances (1993).
4 portraits in the collection
Dorothy Porter (1954–2008), poet and writer, grew up in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, graduated from the University of Sydney in 1975 and taught creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
During his long and distinguished career Max Dupain took thousands of photographs of people
Christopher Chapman discusses Rod McNicol's photographic portrait series Newcomers to my village.
First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Professor Derek Denton AC and Dame Margaret Scott AC 2014
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Magazines are the portrait galleries of the 90s... Glossy is about magazines. The exhibition presents the work of eight photographers, Australian by birth or long-term residency, who are producing portraits for publication in magazines around the world.
Margaret Fink (b. 1933), film producer, was a key figure in the renaissance of Australian cinema in the 1970s.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
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.
Rick Amor, noblest yet most unaffected of contemporary Australian portraitists, is also a painter of enigmatic, ominous landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes that haunt the viewer like dreams, dimly-recalled.
When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
William Macleod, artist and magazine proprietor, attended the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts as a young teenager and saw his first illustration published in 1866.
4 portraits in the collection
Deborah Mailman AM (b. 1972), Bidjara and Māori (Ngāti Porou and Te Arawa) actor and singer, is the daughter of Maori and Aboriginal parents who met when her father was touring on the rodeo circuit.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of the artist 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2004
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).
Rhodri Glyn Davies worked as a television cameraman and director of documentaries while pursuing his interest in photography, exhibiting with a group of artists called Quincunx in Wales and Scotland.
1 portrait in the collection
Ali Cobby Eckermann (b. 1963), Yankunytjatjara/Kothaka author and poet, was born in Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
Tracey Holmes (b. 1966), sports broadcaster and journalist, has covered twelve Olympic Games and was the first woman to host an Australian national sports program, Grandstand.
1 portrait in the collection
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Fiona Stanley AC (b. 1946), paediatric epidemiologist, is a passionate advocate for children and young people.
2 portraits in the collection
It is not well known that the person who composed the famous theme music for the BBC's Doctor Who series was Australian Ron Grainer.
Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine.
Cathy Freeman OAM (b. 1973) won the 400m Olympic Gold medal in front of her home crowd in Sydney in 2000 in one of the all-time great Australian sporting moments.
5 portraits in the collection
Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018
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.’
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
Gift of the J Sages Family Trust 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry
Born 1983, Chongqing, Sichuan Province. Lives and works in Beijing.
Ruby Hunter (1955-2010), singer/songwriter, was a Ngarrindjeri/ Kukatha/ Pitjantjatjara woman from South Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Trukanini (c. 1812–1876) is arguably nineteenth century Australia’s most celebrated Indigenous leader.
6 portraits in the collection
Jason Yat-Sen Li (b. 1972) was born to parents who came to Australia from China in 1959.
1 portrait in the collection
The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.
Magda Keaney speaks with Lewis Morley about his photographic career and the major retrospective of his work on display at the NPG.
Nancy Menetrey (née Wilkinson) was born in Sydney in 1924. After serving with the Australian Women's Land Army, formed during the Second World War to address labour shortages in the agricultural sector, she travelled overseas in the early 1950s, living and working in London for a number of years.
1 portrait in the collection
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
Dawn Fraser, Lionel Rose, Shane Gould and Cathy Freeman
Omai (Mai) (c. 1750-1778), the first Polynesian to visit Britain, was a young man of middling social standing who volunteered to sail from Huahine to England with Captain Furneaux on the Adventure (the ship accompanying James Cook's Resolution on Cook's second voyage of discovery (1772-1775).
2 portraits in the collection
William Yang (b. 1943) is a pre-eminent Australian photographer known for an intensely sustained body of work that examines issues of cultural and sexual identity, and which unflinchingly documents the lives of his friends and community and his own lived experience with curiosity, sensitivity and humour.
15 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Geoffrey Tozer 2012
Tim Fairfax AC (b.1946), company director, grazier and philanthropist, is a founding benefactor of the National Portrait Gallery and a former chair of its board of directors.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
‘The Australian Wonder’, Johnny Day (1856–1885), was an undefeated world-champion juvenile walker.
1 portrait in the collection
James Holloway describes the first portraits you encounter when entering the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Recent research shows that two thirds of all Australians have a sterling interest in the arts and Australian history. This is just one of the promising findings to arise from the National Portrait Gallery’s commissioned snapshot of its national brand awareness, via a nationally representative survey.
Today, the National Portrait Gallery has opened the Call for Entries for the annual Digital Portraiture Award 2016.
Lady Deborah Vernon Hackett (1887–1965) was a mining company director and philanthropist.
1 portrait in the collection
Melbourne-born track and field athlete John Landy AC CVO MBE (1930–2022) came to the nation’s attention as a young man in the mid-1950s, as he followed his first Olympic competition at Helsinki in 1952 with a series of extraordinary races over the course of the next four years.
1 portrait in the collection
Sarah Hill introduces the portrait busts of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm by Enid Fleming.
Scott Redford discusses his dynamic portrait commission of motorcycling champion and 2008 Young Australian of the Year Casey Stoner.
Dame Margaret Scott AC DBE (1922-2019) ballerina and teacher, was scarred by her education in a Johannesburg convent boarding school and left her home on a Swaziland farm in 1939.
1 portrait in the collection
One night in the spring of 1970 in an old house in Whale Beach, north of Sydney, John Witzig, Albe Falzon and David Elfick put together the first issue of Tracks, playing Neil Young’s album Harvest over and over again as they pasted up galleys of type.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Matthew Burnett (1839–1896), the ‘Yorkshire Evangelist’, spent more than twenty years denouncing alcohol in the Australian colonies.
1 portrait in the collection
Christopher Chapman considers photographer Rozalind Drummond's portrait of author Nam Le.
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.
Purchased 2020
Joan Sutherland, Robert Helpmann and Raigh Roe
George Henry Johnston OBE (1912-1970), journalist and novelist, grew up in Elsternwick, a working-class suburb of Melbourne.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Allanah Dopson and Nicholas Heyward 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
The National Portrait Gallery’s National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 will close Monday 8 June 2015, this is the last week to visit the exhibition in Canberra and vote for your favourite portrait in the People’s Choice.
Magda Keaney explores the symbolism in eX de Medici's portrait of Midnight Oil.
Born: 1973, Lahore, Pakistan
Works: Melbourne
Olegas Truchanas (1923-1972) was born in 1923 in Siauliai, Lithuania.
1 portrait 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.
Ellyse Perry (b.1990) has represented Australia in both cricket and soccer, making her the only current dual international in Australian women’s sport.
2 portraits in the collection
Hilary McPhee AO (b. 1941), writer and editor, began her career at Meanjin before starting a small magazine, Theatre.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery joins the Big Draw, a program dedicated to promoting drawing as a tool for thought, creativity, social and cultural engagement.
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.
Roger Neill delves into the life of a lesser-known Australian diva, Frances Alda.
Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.
Julia Gillard pays poignant tribute to her friend and mentor, the late Joan Kirner, Victoria’s first and only female premier.
Clem, George, David, Alfie and Russell Sands were members of one of Australia's most famous sporting families.
2 portraits in the collection
Clem, George, David, Alfie and Russell Sands were members of one of Australia's most famous sporting families.
2 portraits in the collection
Clem, George, David, Alfie and Russell Sands were members of one of Australia's most famous sporting families.
2 portraits in the collection
Clem, George, David, Alfie and Russell Sands were members of one of Australia's most famous sporting families.
2 portraits in the collection
Clem, George, David, Alfie and Russell Sands were members of one of Australia's most famous sporting families.
2 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.
Born: 1957, Gympie, QLD
Works: Brisbane
Peter Jeffrey trips the hound nostalgic.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Press releases and images downloads for media.
Purchased with funds provided by the Ross family in memory of Noel and Enid Eliot 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
An interview with the photographer.
Olivier Krischer in conversation with photographer Wei Leng Tay.
James T Donovan (1861–1922), journalist, Catholic historian and amateur singer, was born into an Irish Catholic family in Sydney and grew up in Womerah Avenue, Darlinghurst.
1 portrait in the collection
Caroline Chisholm (1808–1877), philanthropist and political agitator, spent almost two decades working to improve conditions for immigrants to Australia.
2 portraits in the collection
Michael Wardell’s personal insight into Jacques van der Merwe’s New Arrivals.
We were in Gaza shooting a documentary and we had heard about the orphanages and wanted to visit and document some of the children who had lost parents during the wars in Gaza.
Photographs from internationally acclaimed artists Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Collier Schorr and Chris Burden along with contemporary Australian artists, Rozalind Drummond and Warwick Baker will call the National Portrait Gallery home during our extraordinary winter exhibition Tough and Tender.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Christopher Chapman reveals the intersection of iconoclastic Japanese figures Yukio Mishima and Tamotsu Yato.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2008
A portrait of Australian rugby great, Dr Mark Loane AM MBBS FRANZO FRACS, is the latest addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. The work is the final in a series of three commissioned portraits of Australian rugby luminaries funded by Gallery benefactor, Mr Patrick Corrigan AM.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
An interview with the photographer.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
In their own words lead researcher Louise Maher on the novel project that lets the Gallery’s portraits speak for themselves.
I met Kaloti Parmjit the day I took the photo. I first visited the Sikh temple in the suburb of Glenwood to take photos as part of a social documentary project I'm undertaking for the State Library of NSW.
Former NPG Director Andrew Sayers discusses the art of commissioning portraits.
Close encounters are the genesis for Graeme Drendel’s enticing portraiture.
Sir William Dargie, painter and eight times winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture, died in Melbourne on July 26, 2003, aged 91.
René Primevère Lesson (1794–1849), French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist, entered the Naval Medical School in Rochefort at the age of sixteen.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
The National Portrait Gallery has officially launched a new digital interactive Gallery experience called Headhunt!, the first app of its kind being used in museums and galleries. Headhunt! is a tablet-based app for visitors aged 7-15 that encourages children to take the lead and independently explore the Gallery.
Comments from our judges and information about entering the 2017 Prize.
Martin Sharp fulfils the Pop art idiom of merging art and life.
The theme of the seventh annual survey of secondary school student portraiture, Headspace, was Me and My Place.
It is not every day that a national gallery turns its walls over to the animal companions that bring unconditional love and joy to their owners but this summer we have opened the doors to 15 contemporary artists with very different ways of depicting our furry, feathered and scaled pets.
The lovely faces in my photograph are that of my best friends. Some I have only known for a couple of months, others for most of my life. For me, recreating a family portrait with individuals I love was supremely important. I was reconstructing a photo of people I cherish with people I adore.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Adrian Rawlins (1939-2001), poet, performer and promoter, grew up in a Jewish household in Caulfield and St Kilda.
1 portrait in the collection
Christopher Chapman previews the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009.
Ada Emily Evans (1872–1947) was the first Australian woman to attain a law degree and the first woman admitted to the Bar in New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
Tim Burstall (1927-2004) set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
2 portraits in the collection
Born 1965 in Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.
I like talking about Drendel’s pictures as if they expressed dreams of my own.
It was definitely a candid encounter as was the expression on the face. It was constructed insofar as the image was deliberately taken from a distance so as to minimize intrusion and to magnify the effect of the image.
Katherine Russell examines the art of Australian artist Paul Newton, referencing the portraiture of John Singer Sargent.
Mikala is the eldest of my three daughters. I have photographed her on many an occasion. Needless to say we are both extremely at home with the practice.
Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.
Stella Ramage on Father McHardy’s Bougainville portraiture.
Christopher Chapman delights in the intimacy of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography
Joanna Gilmour, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2013 Prize.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of James Semple Kerr 2004
The lady in the centre of this photograph is my partner's Granny. So we are almost directly related, and here, as with all photographic work. I am in a state of exchange though I think only directly, with one of the women!
Two professionals; Australian surfer Layne Beachley and photographer Petrina Hicks, combine their strengths to achieve a remarkable portrait.
Patrick Corrigan AM (b. 1932), businessman, art collector and arts patron, was born in Hanghow (Hankou) in China.
3 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2010
Barry York charts the course from childhood request to autographed celebrity portrait anthology.
Paul Kelly & The Portraits presents a multifaceted image of the performer over the course of his career.
Andrew Sayers explores the self-portraits created by Australian artist Sidney Nolan.
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers celebrates the support given to the Gallery by Gordon and Marilyn Darling.
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
An interview with the photographer.
Angus Trumble provides poignant context for Aña Wojak’s portrait of Tony Carden.
Penelope Grist finds photographer Matt Nettheim re-visiting a formative and fulfilling career tram stop.
Robert Hannaford has completed around 400 portraits over the span of his career.
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
John Elliott talks about his photographic portrait practice, including his iconic image of Slim Dusty arm-in-arm with Dame Edna Everage.
Tim Storrier describes the influences on the development of his artistic style.
Frà Professor Richard Divall AO OBE (1945–2017), conductor, composer and scholar, grew up in Manly and was educated at Manly Boys’ High School.
1 portrait in the collection
Curator Michael Desmond introduces the exhibition Truth and Likeness, an investigation of the importance of likeness to portraiture.
Dr Chistopher Chapman discusses the portrait of Australian author Christos Tsiolkas taken by John Tsiavis.
Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.
Nusra Latif Qureshi was born in Pakistan in 1973 and originally trained in the traditional art of Mughal miniature (musaviri) paintings.
Australian artist Shaun Gladwell discusses his portraits of champion athletes.
Christopher Chapman examines the battle of glamour vs. grunge which played out in the fashion and advertising of the 1990s.
Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.
Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.
The exhibition California Video at the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles demonstrated how video artists expand the boundaries of portraiture.
Born 1963, Handan, Hebei Province China. Lives and works in Beijing.
Pat Corrigan's generous gift of 100 photographic portraits by Greg Weight.
All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War exhibition co-curators Dr Anne Sanders and Dr Christopher Chapman reflect on the evolution of the Gallery’s Anzac Centenary exhibition.
Born 1966 in Beijing, China. Lives and works in Beijing.
Christopher Chapman profiles Chris Lilley, actor and creator of Angry Boys.
![Trucaninny [Trukanini], wife of Woureddy [Wurati]](/files/c/b/d/0/i10110-sl.jpg "Trucaninny [Trukanini], wife of Woureddy [Wurati]")
![Trucaninny [Trukanini], wife of Woureddy [Wurati]](/files/c/b/d/0/i10110-ths.jpg "Trucaninny [Trukanini], wife of Woureddy [Wurati]")
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.
Commissioned with funds provided by The Calvert-Jones Foundation 2018
Dr Anne Sanders previews the works in the new focus exhibition Paul Kelly and The Portraits.
Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018
Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.
The story behind the creation of the portrait of singer-songwriter Paul Kelly by the artist Jon Campbell.
I had been watching Agnes with intrigue, her face and profile were so mesmerizing. On our final day together I pulled her aside and convinced her that she had such an amazing face that I needed to get a photograph for myself. It was very spontaneous in that I decided quickly how it would best look and shot it in only two frames.
Joanna Gilmour reveals love’s more intense manifestations in the tale of Lord Kenelm and Venetia Digby.
Jessica Bolton navigates the parallel tracks documenting Robyn Davidson’s astonishing journey.
Penelope Grist speaks to Robert McFarlane about shooting for the stars.
The photograph was a brief, candid moment, which unfolded into a portrait. Peter and I were in Silverton, NSW, chatting as our students explored the town. The weak afternoon light suddenly became dramatic and defined, so I asked Peter if I could take his portrait.
Jaynie Anderson reflects on her experience as sitter for Reshid Bey’s 1962 portrait.
Supporting contemporary photography. Your support will help us expand our contemporary collection.
Commissioned with funds provided by Sony Music Entertainment Australia 2018
Born in Malaysia in 1968, to a Malaysian Muslim father and a New Zealander mother of Scottish descent Nadiah Bamadhaj studied Fine Arts in New Zealand, and is currently working on a PhD from Curtin University, Western Australia.
Christopher Chapman contemplates the provocative performance art of Chris Burden.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
Christopher Chapman describes the art and life of Australian artist Richard Larter.
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers, explores the creative collaborations between four Australian artists living in Paris during the first years of the twentieth century.
The name of Florence Broadhurst, one of Australia’s most significant wallpaper and textile designers, is now firmly cemented in the canon of Australian art and design.
Gregory McBean writes about photographing recent ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, singer Stevie Wright.
Gift of the artist 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Robin Sellick captured a rare moment of quietude from the late conservation star Steve Irwin.
Dr Christopher Chapman discusses the portrait of Australian composer Paul Grabowsky by photographer Martin Philbey.
From an outstanding field of more than 3,000 entries, culminating in a shortlist of 39 exceptional finalists, the Winner and Highly Commended entries for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize have been named.
Henri-Cartier-Bresson invented the grammar for photographing life in the 20th century.
Inga Walton traces the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, revealed in the NGV’s summer retrospective.
Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.
Finalists have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Winner and Highly Commended for the National Photographic Portrait Prize since December. It is our pleasure to announce the Winner for 2018 is Lee Grant for her portrait titled Charlie and Highly Commended has been awarded to Filomena Rizzo for her portrait titled My Olivia.
Certain European leaders (needless to name) had the effect of making certain styles of facial hair decidedly undesirable in the years immediately after World War 2.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2014 Prize.
Tedi Bills talks to George Gittoes about canvassing conflict.
Sarah Engledow previews the beguiling summer exhibition, Idle hours.
I like to think I'm an artist who uses photography as my medium, but I work commercially as a photographer and it's my full time occupation so I guess that defines me as a photographer or maybe a commercial artist?
Stephen Valambras Graham traverses the intriguing socio-political terrain behind two iconic First Nations portraits of the 1850s.
An extensive selection of portraits by John Brack were on display at the National Portrait Gallery in late 2007.
Sarah Engledow trains her exacting lens on the nine photographs from 20/20.
We were in Gaza shooting a documentary and we had heard about the orphanages and wanted to visit and document some of the children who had lost parents during the wars in Gaza.
Inspiring Australians tell their own stories in a unique new gallery audio tour, developed in collaboration with the National Library of Australia.
Krysia Kitch reviews black chronicles at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Dr Sarah Engledow delves into the life of union leader Pat Mackie who is depicted in a portrait by Nancy Borlase AM.
Take a peek at a selection of the portraits you can see in the exhibition.
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
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
Penelope Grist charts an immersive path through Stuart Spence’s photography.
The exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus offers various interpretations of sporting men and women by five Australian photographers.
Dr Sarah Engledow describes the achievements of internationally renowned burns and trauma surgeon Professor Fiona Wood.
Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.
A pair of portraits by John Brack; Portrait of Kym Bonython and Portrait of Mr Bonython's speedway cap combine to create a quirky depiction of their subject.
The first collaborative commission has arrived. It's a self portrait, it's ceramic and it's from Hermannsburg.
Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
The National Portrait Gallery today announced finalists for the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize, a national new $75,000 prize for Australian portrait painting, and released selected images from the final prize pool for the popular National Photography Portrait Prize.
Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.
Michael Desmond interviews Ralph Heimans about his portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.
The Glossy 2 exhibition highlights the integral role magazine photography plays in illustrating and shaping our contemporary culture.
Keith Christiansen introduces the exhibition The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
John Zubrzycki lauds the characters of the Australian escapology trade.
Robyn Sweaney's quiet Violet obsession.
Australian photographer Karin Catt has shot across the spectrum of celebrity, her subjects including rock stars, world leaders and actors.
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.
Bruce Petty's animated self portrait captures a life's journey compressed into a few minutes.
Tom Fryer surveys the twentieth-century architectural project, and finds representation and the portrait were integral elements.
Matthew Jones on the upshot of a St Kilda Road outrage.
In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.
Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.
Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.
Dr Sarah Engledow discusses the recent gift of works by David Campbell.
Barrie Cassidy pays textured tribute to the inimitable Bob Hawke.
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.
Dr Christopher Chapman explores how we can understand Richard Avedon's photographs.
The full-length portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark by artist Jiawei Shen, has become a destination piece for visitors.
John Zubrzycki meets Australian paint pioneer Jim Cobb.
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.
National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan AM nominates her quintet of favourites from the collection, with early twentieth-century ‘selfies’ filling the roster.
Jerrold Nathan's portrait of Jessie Street shows the elegant side of a many-faceted lady.
Charting a path from cockatiel to finch, Annette Twyman explores her family portraits and stories.
Sean Davey captures the portrait of a nation renewed.
Mark Haworth-Booth explains why Bill Brandt is one of the most important British photographers of the Twentieth Century.
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.
Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.
Gael Newton looks at Australian photography, film and the sixties through the novel lens of Mark Strizic.
Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.
Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.
Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.
Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.
Dr Christopher Chapman, curator of Inner Worlds: Portraits & Psychology looks at Albert Tucker's Heidelberg military hospital portraits.
April Thompson explores an exhibition of Ingvar Kenne’s global portrait project.
A new light installation by Jonathan Jones reflects on the importance of community through the lens of his Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi heritage, whilst also acting as a prompt for gallery visitors to maintain social distancing.
Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2018 Prize.
Politics and personae in the portraiture of TextaQueen by Jane Raffan.
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.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.
At the time of Herra Pahlasari’s birth in 1978, her academic parents were living in Canberra.
Beatrice Gralton looks at a larger than life portrait by Chinese artist Song Dong.
The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.
A moving portrait of Cate Blanchett unfolds as an inspired pairing of medium and subject.
The Kylie exhibition celebrated the significant achievements of one of Australia's most internationally recognisable faces and gave the general public a rare glimpse into her glamorous life.
Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.
An interview with the photographer.
John Elderfield lauds the portraiture of Paul Cézanne, the artist described by both Matisse and Picasso as ‘the father of us all’.
Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.
Despite once expressing a limited interest in the self portrait, the idea of it has figured strongly in much of Tracey Moffatt's work and has done so in some of her most distinctive and compelling images.
Ah Xian's porcelain portrait of paediatrician Dr. John Yu reflects Yu's heritage and interests.
Leo Schofield introduces the exhibition, Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores.
Bringing eminent scientist Frank Fenner and artist Jude Rae together for the National Portrait Gallery commission was like matchmaking.
Cartoonist Michael Leunig's insights into the human condition and current affairs have become famous Australia-wide.
Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.
English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.
The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.
The Tate/SFMOMA exhibition Exposed examined the role of photography in voyeurism and how it challenges ideas of privacy and propriety.
Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
Gael Newton delves into the life and art of renowned Australian photographer, Max Dupain.
Raimond Gaita comments on war and truth in the context of the First World War.
As the National Portrait Gallery opens its exhibition of portrait and figurative work by veteran photographer Sam Haskins, the artist reflects on the highlights of his fifty-year career so far.
Gillian Raymond ponders landscapes as self-portraiture in Michael Taylor’s intimate expressionism.
Kwon Hyeeun introduces Korean portraits of Kang Sehwang, and five generations of the Kang family.
Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the larger-than-life Australian performance artist, Leigh Bowery.
Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.
S Teddy D was born in Padang, Sumatra in 1970, and studied painting at the Institut Seni Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Art) in Yogyakarta.
Aimee Board reveals method, motivation and mortality in the portraiture of Rod McNicol.
Christopher Chapman ponders our digital identity and selfhood.
It’s a matter beyond dispute that in the entire history of Australian art, it’s Noel McKenna who’s painted the liveliest rendition of the head of a Chihuahua.
Sarah Engledow reflects on the shared life and writing of Dorothy Porter and Andrea Goldsmith.
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.
The world of Thea Proctor was the National Portrait Gallery's second exhibition to follow the life of a single person, following Rarely Everage: The lives of Barry Humphries.
National Gallery of Australia curator Jane Kinsman discusses the portraiture of Henri Matisse.
Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.
National Photographic Portrait Prize curator, Sarah Engledow, finds reward in a difficult task and ultimately uncovers the essence of portraiture.
Joanna Gilmour explores photographic depictions of Aboriginal sportsmen including Lionel Rose, Dave Sands, Jerry Jerome and Douglas Nicholls.
Nikhil Chopra was born in 1974, in Calcutta. His first degree was in commerce, but in 1997 he took up fine art studies, eventually gaining a Masters in Fine Art from Ohio State University, United States.
Jane Raffan feasts on modernity’s entrée in the Belle Époque theatre of the demimonde.
Bess Norriss Tait created miniature watercolour portraits full of character and life.
Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.
How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.
Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
Stephen Phillips talks to neurosurgeon Charlie Teo about his practice, perspectives and the anatomy of hope.
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.
Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.
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.
The life and art of Australian artist Jenny Sages is on display in the exhibition Paths to Portraiture.
The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.
Andrew Mayo considers the changing face of modern wedding photography through the eyes of two of its finest exponents, Dan O’Day and Kelly Tunney.
Joanna Gilmour explores the stories behind the ninteenth-century carte de visites of bushrangers Frank Gardiner and Fred Lowry.
Aviation carried women’s roles in society to greater heights – fashion followed suit.
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 exhibition Aussies all features the ecclectic portrait photography of Rennie Ellis which captures Australian life during the 70s and 80s.
Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.
Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.
A design diary retrospective.
Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.
Marian Anderson’s glorious voice thrust her into stardom, and a more reluctant role as American civil rights pioneer.
Anne Sanders finds connections in Inner Worlds between Hungarian expatriates and the development of psychoanalysis in Australia.
Andrew Sayers discusses the real cost of George Lambert's Self portrait with gladioli 1922.
Pamela Gerrish Nunn explores New Zealand’s premium award for portraiture.
In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.
Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.
Penny Grist on motivation, method and melancholy in the portraiture of Darren McDonald.
Ensconced and meditative in crisp Tasmania, Joanna Gilmour pays tribute to passionate green advocate and photographer Olegas Truchanas.
Inner Worlds evokes a broad view of psychology as a discipline. However, the specific interests of the practitioners whose portraits are included in the exhibition incorporate specialist areas including psychoanalysis.
A focus on Indigenous-European relationships underpins Facing New Worlds. By Kate Fullagar.
Jennifer Coombes explores the lush images of Picnic at Hanging Rock, featuring Anne-Louise Lambert’s Miranda, the face of the film.
Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.
Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?
In the exhibition William Kentridge: Drawn from Africa at the National Gallery of Australia, the artist marries Gogol's Tsarist Russia, with that of Stalin and the damaging history of his homeland, South Africa.
Krysia Kitch celebrates Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
Katrina Osborne immerses herself in one of photography’s most fearless chronicles.
Family affections are preserved in a fine selection of intimate portraits.
NPPP judge Robert Cook provides irreverent insight into this year’s fare, and having to be a bit judgemental.
Penelope Grist finds inspiration in pioneering New Zealand artist, Frances Hodgkins.
Aimee Board ventures within and beyond to consider two remarkable new Gallery acquisitions.
Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.
Jenny Gall delves into Starstruck to celebrate some of Australian cinema’s iconic women.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
Frank Hurley's celebrated images document the heroism and minutiae of Australian exploration in Antarctica.
Angus and the arbiters talk (photo) shop for the National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.
Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.
Karen Vickery on Chang the Chinese giant in Australia.
Christopher Chapman takes a trip through the doors of perception, arriving at the junction of surrealism and psychoanalysis.
Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.
Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.
Christopher Chapman absorbs the gentle touch of Don Bachardy’s portraiture.
Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be
The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.
Jean Appleton’s 1965 self portrait makes a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection writes Joanna Gilmour.
Joanna Gilmour brings a mindful Douglas Mawson’s perspective to bear on the concept of isolation.
Joanna Gilmour dives into the life of Australian swimming legend Annette Kellerman.
Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
Aimee Board traces Judy Cassab’s path to the Australian outback, arriving at the junction of inspiration and abstraction.
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 profiles the life and times of the shutter sisters May and Mina Moore.
Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.
Aircraft designer, pilot and entrepreneur, Sir Lawrence Wackett rejoins friends and colleagues on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.
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.
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.
How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be
Long after the portraitist became indifferent to her, and died, a beguiling portrait hung over its subject.
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.
Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.
Sarah Engledow likes the manifold mediums of Nicholas Harding’s portraiture.
Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.
Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.
Inner Worlds features the recently commissioned portrait of world-renowned philosopher of consciousness David Chalmers by Melbourne-based artist Nick Mourtzakis.
Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.
