Search, National Portrait Gallery

Sir George Young

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

Biography

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

Biography

Simone Young AM (b. 1961) is one of the leading conductors of her generation.

1 portrait in the collection

Angus Young

Biography

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

Biography

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

Nick Young

Biography

Full time professional artist represented by the Woollahra Times Gallery in Sydney and Hart Galleries in Queensland..

1 portrait in the collection

Gary Ede

Biography

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

Gary Ella

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

Gary Foley (b. 1950) is a Gumbainggir activist, actor, historian, curator and academic.

2 portraits in the collection

Phillip Noyce

Biography

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

Mark Ella AM

Biography

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

Marcia Ella

Biography

Marcia Ella (b. 1963) was the first Indigenous woman to play international netball for Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

John Witzig

Biography

John Witzig, photographer, writer and designer, contributed his first piece to Surfing World in 1963.

5 portraits in the collection

Noah Taylor

Biography

Noah Taylor (b. 1969) left school at 16 to join Melbourne's St Martin's Youth Theatre.

1 portrait in the collection

John Marsden

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

Rolf de Heer (b. 1951) was born in Heemskerk, Holland, and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959.

1 portrait in the collection

Stevie Wright

Biography

Stevie Wright (1947-2015), singer songwriter, came to Australia from England at the age of nine.

2 portraits in the collection

Raelene Sharp

Biography

Raelene Sharp (b. 1957), artist, was born in Melbourne and began her career as a graphic artist in advertising.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Jack Brabham OBE

Biography

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

Elaine Pelot-Syron

Biography

Elaine Pelot-Syron grew up in Miami and came to Australia to teach English in 1971.

1 portrait in the collection

John Darling

Biography

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

Biography

Peter van der Veer, photographer, designer and painter, studied at Prahran College in the 1970s.

1 portrait in the collection

Bon Scott

Biography

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

Angry Anderson

Biography

Gary ‘Angry’ Anderson AM (b. 1947) is an Australian rock singer and television presenter.

1 portrait in the collection

Alice Mills

Biography

Victorian-born Alice Mills was one of a significant number of women photographers in business between 1900 and 1920.

1 portrait in the collection

Lleyton Hewitt AM

Biography

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

Brian McInerney

Biography

Brian McInerney, professional photographer, was a young assistant photographer at Channel Seven in Sydney in the 1960s.

2 portraits in the collection

Chris Gentle

Biography

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

Adam Perkins

Biography

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

Biography

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

Tan Le

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Casey Stoner AM

Biography

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

Elizabeth Chong

Biography

For many years Elizabeth Chong has shared her love of Chinese cuisine with Australian audiences.

1 portrait in the collection

Janette Howard

Biography

Janette Howard (b. 1943), wife of former prime minister the Hon. John Howard OM AC, was born in Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Melissa Beowulf

Biography

Melissa Beowulf grew up in Sydney, where she became a graphic artist.

2 portraits in the collection

David Combe

Biography

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

Sir William Beechey

Biography

Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1 portrait in the collection

Lindy Morrison

Biography

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

Biography

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

Garry Shead

Biography

Born in Sydney, Garry Shead studied at the National Art School in 1961-2.

3 portraits in the collection

Kylie Kwong

Biography

Kylie Kwong was born into a fourth generation Australian Chinese family in Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, Governor of South Australia

Sir William F. Jervois

Biography

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

Werner Baer MBE

Biography

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

Biography

Percy Spence, born in Balmain, grew up in Fiji and began art classes in Sydney in about 1888.

1 portrait in the collection

John Hamilton

Biography

As a young reporter for the Melbourne Age, John Hamilton (b.1940 UK, migrated to Aust.

1 portrait in the collection

Jacques Etienne Victor Arago

Biography

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

Georgie Swift

Biography

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

Biography

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 AM

Biography

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

Herb Elliott AC MBE

Biography

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

Hari Ho

Biography

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

Phillip Gudthaykudthay

Biography

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

Biography

Matthew Reilly (b. 1974) is a successful writer of popular fiction novels, characterised by suspenseful narratives and futuristic scenarios.

1 portrait in the collection

Gordon Watson AM

Biography

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

Brett Whiteley

Biography

Brett Whiteley AO, artist, displayed a brilliant talent for drawing as a Sydney private schoolboy.

11 portraits in the collection

Heide Smith

Biography

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

Biography

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

David Rastovich

Biography

David 'Rasta' Rastovich (b. 1979), professional surfer and conservation activist, was born in rural New Zealand.

1 portrait in the collection

Tjayanka Woods

Biography

Tjayanka Woods (d. 2014) was a senior Pitjantjatjara artist and cultural custodian.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir Bernard Heinze AC KT

Biography

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

Lee Lin Chin

Biography

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

Georges Antoni

Biography

Georges Antoni (b. 1975), fashion photographer, grew up in a small town in central Queensland.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Kean

Biography

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

Biography

Sir Cecil Colville (1891-1984), medical practitioner, was the first president of the Australian Medical Association.

1 portrait in the collection

Theresa Byrnes

Biography

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

Colleen McCullough

Biography

The novelist Colleen McCullough (1937–2015) was born in Wellington, New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Julia Matthews

Biography

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

Biography

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

Henry Mundy

Biography

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

John Farnham AO

Biography

John Farnham (b.1949) has sustained a successful career in the Australian music industry for more than 40 years.

1 portrait in the collection

Nikki Toole

Biography

Scottish-born photographer Nikki Toole (b. 1965) studied film and photography in London and Edinburgh before moving to Melbourne.

3 portraits in the collection

Richard Larter

Biography

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 OBE

Biography

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

Ada Bird Petyarre

Biography

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

Biography

Olivia Newton-John AC DBE (1948-2022) 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

Robin Sellick

Biography

Robin Sellick (b. 1967), photographer, is well known for his distinctive portraits of Australian actors, musicians, politicians and athletes.

17 portraits in the collection

The Hon. Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO

Biography

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

Mervyn Bishop

Biography

Mervyn Bishop (b. 1945), a Murri photographer, began a cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963.

6 portraits in the collection

Janet Holmes a Court AC

Biography

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

Peter Drewett

Biography

Peter G. Drewett is a Grafton craftsman. Drewett grew up in difficult economic circumstances in Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

Wayne Lynch

Biography

Wayne Lynch (b. 1951), surfer and surfboard shaper, grew up in Lorne, Victoria, not far from Bells Beach.

2 portraits in the collection

William Beach

Biography

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

The Hon. John Howard OM AC

Biography

The Hon. John Howard OM AC (b. 1939) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007.

1 portrait in the collection

Hélène Kirsova

Biography

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

Biography

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

Charles Chauvel

Biography

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

Kenneth Rowell AM

Biography

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

Biography

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

David Rankin OAM

Biography

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

Biography

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

Naomi Watts

Biography

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

Walter Langhammer

Biography

Walter Langhammer went to India before World War 2, fleeing the Nazis in Austria.

1 portrait in the collection

Mitch Cairns

Biography

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

John Bertrand

Biography

John Bertrand AO (b. 1946) is a successful yachtsman, Olympian, sports administrator, businessman and philanthropist.

1 portrait in the collection

Jessica Mauboy

Biography

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

Albert Falzon

Biography

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

Biography

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

Bruce Petty

Biography

Bruce Petty, political cartoonist, grew up in Melbourne and as a young man took night classes in art at RMIT.

1 portrait in the collection

Kondelea Elliott

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Simon Tedeschi

Biography

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

John Dease

Biography

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

Martin Sharp

Biography

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

Biography

Layne Beachley AO (b. 1972), former surfer and businesswoman, is the world's most successful female professional surfer.

2 portraits in the collection

Evonne Goolagong (Cawley) AC MBE

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Biography

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

Margaret Fink

Biography

Margaret Fink (b. 1933), film producer, was a key figure in the renaissance of Australian cinema in the 1970s.

2 portraits in the collection

William Macleod

Biography

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

Biography

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

Rhodri G. Davies

Biography

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

Biography

Ali Cobby Eckermann (b. 1963), Yankunytjatjara/Kothaka author and poet, was born in Adelaide.

1 portrait in the collection

Tracey Holmes

Biography

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

Fiona Stanley AC

Biography

Fiona Stanley AC (b. 1946), paediatric epidemiologist, is a passionate advocate for children and young people.

2 portraits in the collection

Cathy Freeman OAM

Biography

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

Ruby Hunter

Biography

Ruby Hunter (1955-2010), singer/songwriter, was a Ngarrindjeri/ Kukatha/ Pitjantjatjara woman from South Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Trukanini

Biography

Trukanini (c. 1812–1876) is arguably nineteenth century Australia’s most celebrated Indigenous leader.

6 portraits in the collection

Jason Yat-sen Li

Biography

Jason Yat-Sen Li (b. 1972) was born to parents who came to Australia from China in 1959.

1 portrait in the collection

Nancy Menetrey

Biography

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

Omai

Biography

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

Biography

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

Tim Fairfax AC

Biography

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

Johnny Day

Biography

‘The Australian Wonder’, Johnny Day (1856–1885), was an undefeated world-champion juvenile walker.

1 portrait in the collection

Lady Deborah Vernon Hackett

Biography

Lady Deborah Vernon Hackett (1887–1965) was a mining company director and philanthropist.

1 portrait in the collection

John Landy AC CVO MBE

Biography

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

A Path of Focus: Portrait of Cate and Bronte Campbell

Cate Campbell OAM

Biography

Sisters Bronte Campbell (b. 1994) and Cate Campbell (b. 1992), champion swimmers, were born in Malawi to South African parents, and took up competitive swimming after the family settled in Brisbane in 2001.

1 portrait in the collection

Bronte Campbell OAM

Biography

Sisters Bronte Campbell (b. 1994) and Cate Campbell (b. 1992), champion swimmers, were born in Malawi to South African parents, and took up competitive swimming after the family settled in Brisbane in 2001.

1 portrait in the collection

Dame Margaret Scott AC DBE

Biography

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

Matthew Burnett

Biography

Matthew Burnett (1839–1896), the ‘Yorkshire Evangelist’, spent more than twenty years denouncing alcohol in the Australian colonies.

1 portrait in the collection

George Johnston OBE

Biography

George Henry Johnston OBE (1912-1970), journalist and novelist, grew up in Elsternwick, a working-class suburb of Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

Olegas Truchanas

Biography

Olegas Truchanas (1923-1972) was born in 1923 in Siauliai, Lithuania.

1 portrait in the collection

Ellyse Perry

Biography

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

Biography

Hilary McPhee AO (b. 1941), writer and editor, began her career at Meanjin before starting a small magazine, Theatre.

1 portrait in the collection

Ngayulu Minyma Tjanpinya, I am a Tjanpi Woman

Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM

Biography

Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM (b. c 1947) is a senior Tjanpi Desert Weaver with work spanning across printmaking, ceramics and fibre-based work.

1 portrait in the collection