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George Spartels (b. 1954), actor, composer, musician and presenter, was a host on the ABC television children’s program Play School from 1985 to 1999.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Coles CBE (1885–1977) was the founder of the retail concern GJ Coles and Coy.
1 portrait in the collection
George Moore (1923-2008), champion jockey, was born in Mackay, Qld and was apprenticed in Brisbane in 1938.
1 portrait in the collection
George Nicholas CBE (1884-1960), pharmacist and philanthropist, grew up in South Australia and Victoria.
1 portrait in the collection
George Dance the Younger, architect, was a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768.
4 portraits in the collection
George Hamilton Barrable was a painter of portraits and landscapes, active in London in the 1870s and 1880s, who exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy..
1 portrait in the collection
George Coates, Melbourne-born artist, started his art career in a stained glass workshop, attending classes with Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery school at night.
1 portrait in the collection
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
4 portraits in the collection
George Billett (also Bellett, Bellette and Billet, 1812–1885) was a farmer and landowner, an early settler of Sorell in Tasmania, and the son of two ex-convicts.
1 portrait in the collection
George Foxhill studied art in his native Austria, attending the Kunstegewerbeschule and the Volkshochschule in Salzburg after the war.
1 portrait in the collection
George Fetting (b. 1964) is a Sydney-based photographer specialising in portrait, travel and editorial work.
8 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
George Romney, painter, was born and trained in the north of England until 1762, when moved to London, where he exhibited at the Society of Arts and later at the Free Society and the Society of Artists.
2 portraits in the collection
George A Highland (1874-1954), theatrical producer, grew up in England, where, as a choirboy, he came to the attention of Arthur Sullivan.
1 portrait in the collection
George Bell studied in Melbourne and Paris, and was elected a member of the Modern Society of Portrait Painters, London, in 1908.
1 portrait in the collection
George Milpurrurru (1934-1998), Ganalbingu (Yolgnu) painter, was one of the most important bark painters of the twentieth century.
1 portrait in the collection
George Gregan (b. 1973) is arguably the best rugby union half-back in the world today.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Grey (1812-1898), originally an explorer of the West Australian coast, became Governor of the near- bankrupt colony of South Australia in 1840.
2 portraits in the collection
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
George Molnar AO OBE (1910–1998), cartoonist, artist, architect and social commentator, was born in Hungary and studied architecture at Budapest University, graduating in 1932.
1 portrait in the collection
George Garrard ARA, born in London, trained under the animal painter Sawrey Gilpin and enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools at the end of 1778.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Hayter (1792-1871), English portrait and historical painter, studied briefly at the Royal Academy Schools as a teenager, running away to sea before returning to assist his father, an artist who tutored Princess Charlotte.
1 portrait in the collection
George Rose, joint Secretary of the British Treasury at the time of the First Fleet, joined the civil service after leaving the Royal Navy in 1762.
1 portrait in the collection
George Bonnor (1855–1912), cricketer, made his debut for Australia in the first official Test match between Australia and England, held at The Oval in September 1880.
1 portrait in the collection
George Baxter, a Londoner, is credited with inventing the first commercially viable colour printing process.
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
George Finey, one of Australia's best-known cartoonists, was born in Auckland and was selling drawings to local newspapers by the time he was 14.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Fisher CMG (1903-2007), mining industry executive, began work at the Zinc Corporation at Broken Hill in 1925 after having completed a mining engineering degree in Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
George Seddon AM (1927-2007), scholar and academic, studied English at Melbourne University before spending several years abroad, travelling and teaching at universities in Europe and North America.
1 portrait in the collection
George John Watson (1829–1906), racing entrepreneur, was born at Ballydarton in Co.
1 portrait in the collection
George Barrington (1755-1804) was the best-known 'gentleman thief' of late eighteenth-century London.
3 portraits in the collection
Sir George Knibbs CBE (1858-1929), statistician, was born into a working-class Sydney family and nothing is known of his early education.
1 portrait in the collection
George Tjungurrayi (b. c. 1943–1947) is a highly respected senior Pintupi artist.
2 portraits in the collection
George Lambert (1873–1930), artist, was born in St Petersburg and lived in Germany and England before coming to Australia with his family at the age of fourteen.
7 portraits in the collection
George Gittoes AM (b. 1949), artist, photographer and filmmaker, has documented some of the world's most notorious conflicts.
4 portraits in the collection
George Case (life dates unknown) and his wife Grace Egerton (d. 1881), variety performers, made several successful tours of Australia in the 1860s and 1870s, although the precise dates of their visits are unknown.
1 portrait in the collection
George Pell AC (1941–2023), former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, was born and educated in Ballarat, Victoria.
1 portrait in the collection
George William Perry (1824–1900) was born in London and arrived in Victoria via South Africa around 1852.
2 portraits in the collection
George Henry Johnston OBE (1912-1970), journalist and novelist, grew up in Elsternwick, a working-class suburb of Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
George Hurrell, born in Kentucky, began his working life studying painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.
1 portrait in the collection
George Mealmaker (1768–1808), convict and activist, became involved in radical politics in his native Dundee in the 1780s.
1 portrait in the collection
George Brown (1835-1917), clergyman, established numerous Methodist missions in the Pacific from the late 1880s.
1 portrait in the collection
Eminent scientist Dame Bridget Ogilvie AC DBE FAA FRS (b. 1938) completed her undergraduate degree at the University of New England, graduating with the University Medal in 1960.
2 portraits in the collection
George French Angas (1822-1886) was an artist and shell collector, who published many illustrations of the plants, native animals and peoples of the southern hemisphere.
2 portraits in the collection
George Baird Shaw (1812-1883), painter and printmaker, arrived in Australia in 1856.
2 portraits in the collection
Dr George Fordyce Story (1800-1885) was an English-born doctor who became district assistant surgeon in Van Diemen's Land.
1 portrait in the collection
George Judah Cohen (1842-1937), banker, took over the Maitland office of his father's wholesale firm David Cohen and Co.
1 portrait in the collection
George Coppin (1819-1906), comedian, entrepreneur and politician, cut his teeth in the world of the English itinerant theatre.
2 portraits in the collection
Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (1900–1968) was a high-profile American fashion photographer and Hollywood figure.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958), photographer, cinematographer, polar explorer and naturalist, spent his childhood on a farm in South Australia and became interested in photography while studying engineering and music at the University of Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
Frederick George Reynolds was born in London, the son of a watercolourist, Frederick G Reynolds senior, who was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy.
1 portrait in the collection
George Rrurrambu Burarrwanga (1957–2007) was a Yolngu singer, activist and a founding member of the Warumpi Band.
2 portraits in the collection
Alfred George Stephens (1865–1933), editor, journalist and publisher, was born and educated in Toowoomba.
1 portrait in the collection
George Gotardo Foletta CMG (1892-1973), manufacturer, worked as a travelling salesman for his father, a fancy goods commission agent, before setting up the Atlas Knitting and Spinning Mills Pty Ltd in Brunswick in 1920.
2 portraits in the collection
George Michael Prendergast (1854-1937), printer and premier, was born to an Irish goldminer and his wife and was apprenticed to the printer of the Pleasant Creek News in 1868.
1 portrait in the collection
George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott (1866–1917) was the captain of the Australian cricket team which toured England and then to the USA and New Zealand from June to November 1896.
1 portrait in the collection
Herbert Benjamin George Larkin CBE (c. 1871- 1944), shipping administrator, came to Australia from England and joined the office of the Australian Steam Navigation Company.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Houstoun Reid GCB GCMG KC (1845-1918) was Australian prime minister from August 1904 to July 1905.
3 portraits in the collection
Victor Albert George Child-Villiers (1845-1915) succeeded his father George Augustus (1808-1859), 6th earl, who had only held the title for three weeks, as 7th earl of Jersey in 1859.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Frederick George Denham Bedford GCB GCVO (1838–1913) was governor of Western Australia from 1903 to 1909.
1 portrait in the collection
Ivan Gaal came to Australia as a refugee from his native Hungary in 1957.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
1 portrait in the collection
Norm Provan (1932-2021), footballer and coach, played junior rugby league for Sutherland and trialled unsuccessfully for Eastern Suburbs before being signed by the St George Dragons in 1951.
1 portrait in the collection
The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company was founded in 1854 by George Swan Nottage.
2 portraits in the collection
Frank McIlwraith was the London representative for the Australian periodical Smith's Weekly in the late 1930s.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Edgar Barton ‘EB’ Coles (1899-1981) was the longest-serving chief executive of the Coles retail group.
2 portraits in the collection
Jessie Whyte (née Walker, 1779–1864). Born in Berwickshire, Scotland, Jessie married George Whyte (d.
1 portrait in the collection
Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.
1 portrait in the collection
George Henry Dancey began his career as a stained glass designer in the UK and Australia, but ended it as the chief cartoonist for Melbourne Punch over 23 years to 1919..
1 portrait in the collection
The draftsman and engraver William Evans reproduced many of Sir William Beechey’s portraits including that of King George..
3 portraits in the collection
Laura Praeger (née Blundell) was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and was about twelve years old when her father brought his family to Australia, settling in Queensland.
1 portrait in the collection
Adela Russell Walker (1847–1932), the youngest of her parents' thirteen children, was born in Longford and was 22 when she married George Coleridge Nixon, who was the son of Francis Russell Nixon – an amateur artist and Anglican Bishop of Tasmania from 1843 to 1862.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729–1808), statesman, was educated at Oxford and entered parliament in 1761.
1 portrait in the collection
James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.
2 portraits in the collection
George Billett (also Bellett, Bellette and Billet, 1812–1885) was a farmer and landowner, an early settler of Sorell in Tasmania, and the son of two ex-convicts.
1 portrait in the collection
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
3 portraits in the collection
Alan Davies' and Peter Stanbury's The Mechanical Eye in Australia lists Sydney photographer John Davis (life dates unknown) as having a carte-de visite studio on King Street, and as working from addresses on Pitt and George Streets between 1870 and 1873..
1 portrait in the collection
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (1900–2002) was born the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon.
2 portraits in the collection
Jessie Sinden was a barmaid at the Brooklyn Hotel on George Street in Sydney when she was 'discovered' by Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, a high-profile American fashion photographer and Hollywood figure.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was one of the leading portrait painters of the Georgian era.
8 portraits in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
Gail Kelly (b. 1956), former banking executive, was born in South Africa and gained degrees in arts and education from the University of Cape Town before working as a high-school Latin teacher.
1 portrait in the collection
Robert Quayle Kermode (1812-1870), politician, was born on the Isle of Man and educated at Castletown.
1 portrait in the collection
Jean Nethercote (now Goldberg) first met Ola Cohn when she took a life class in Cohn's studio in the mid-50s.
1 portrait in the collection
George Rayner Hoff (1894-1937), sculptor, was born in England and trained at the Royal College of Art, London.
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
Meredith Rogers, theatre director and academic, studied at the University of Melbourne and worked between 1974 and 1979 with Kiffy Rubbo at the Ewing and George Paton Galleries.
1 portrait in the collection
Adelaide of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen (1792–1849) was the consort of King William IV of England.
1 portrait in the collection
Julian Rossi Ashton CBE (1851-1942), art teacher, artist and critic, trained in art in London and at the Académie Julian in Paris before coming to Australia to work on the Illustrated Australian News in 1878.
4 portraits in the collection
Johann Zoffany, painter of portraits and conversation pieces, grew up in the court of the Prince von Thurn und Taxis in Germany, where his father was employed.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Coleman Durkin trained at the Williamstown School of Design and started work in Melbourne as an apprentice to an engraver and then a jeweller.
27 portraits in the collection
Lady Maisie Drysdale (1915–2001), children's librarian and artists' muse, developed an interest in art as a child, and attended both the University of Melbourne and George Bell's art school.
1 portrait in the collection
Annie May Moore (1881-1931) was born in New Zealand and studied at the Elam School of Art and Design in Auckland.
5 portraits in the collection
The Knox's third son, Thomas Forster Knox (1849-1919) followed his father and older brother into business, and became prominent in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Lina Bryans OAM (1909-2000), artist, was born into a prosperous Melbourne family and grew up moving freely between Toorak and Europe.
3 portraits in the collection
The Swiss Studios opened in King Street, Sydney in early 1898, operating from a building described as a 'pleasing reminder of one of those delightful old Swiss chalets, which one always associates with Alpine travel.' The elaborate establishment boasted a first-floor reception room, 'beautifully decorated and luxuriously furnished', 'tastefully arranged dressing rooms, one for ladies and the other for gentlemen', and a 'lofty, cool and well-lit gallery' where 'the best artists in the photographic line' were at work.
1 portrait in the collection
Johnny Warren OAM MBE (1943-2004), footballer, football administrator and commentator, grew up in southern Sydney where he played his first games of soccer, as his game was then known, for the Botany Methodists.
1 portrait in the collection
Mary MacQueen studied for a year at the George Bell School after the war, and for another year at RMIT a decade later.
2 portraits in the collection
The Photographic Society of Victoria was formed in 1876 to 'bring photographers together in a friendly spirit, in order to advance the art and science of photography in the colony, without any attempt at binding or dictating to members any special trading rules, such as charges for photographs or hours or days for closing or opening their respective establishments.' At the time of the first annual meeting on 9 March 1877 there were 61 members, five whom were ladies.
1 portrait in the collection
Robert Thomas Carter (1843–1917) was a leading Sydney cabinetmaker and furniture warehouseman, and later an antique dealer.
2 portraits in the collection
Martha Knox (née Rutledge, d. 1903), was the sister of merchant, landowner and banker William Rutledge.
1 portrait in the collection
Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930), artist, trained in art in his native Birmingham before moving to Sydney in 1883, aged 20.
1 portrait in the collection
Beruk (William Barak) (1824-1903), an elder of the Wurundjeri clan of the Woi-worung, was the most famous Aboriginal person in Victoria in the 1890s.
1 portrait in the collection
Victor Greenhalgh (1900-1983) was a sculptor and teacher who greatly influenced tertiary art education; he was one of the first Victorian sculptors to adopt a modern style.
5 portraits in the collection
Kiffy Rubbo (1944-1980) was director of the Ewing and George Paton Gallery at the University of Melbourne from 1973 to 1980.
1 portrait in the collection
Margaret Robertson (née Whyte, 1811–1866) was the daughter of settlers George and Jessie Whyte, who emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land from Scotland in 1832.
4 portraits in the collection
Francis (Pat) Quinn (1914–2010), showman and hypnotist, was born in Christchurch, New Zealand.
2 portraits in the collection
Tommy Smith (1916-1998), racehorse trainer, was born at Jembaicumbene near Braidwood, NSW.
2 portraits in the collection
Sir William John Macleay (1820-1891), pastoralist, politician, collector and promoter of science, had just begun to study medicine in his native Scotland when family circumstances dictated his migration to New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
William Daniell (1769-1837) worked mostly as a topographical draftsman and engraver in aquatint.
4 portraits in the collection
Falk Studios was established by Melbourne-born photographer H. Walter Barnett in George Street, Sydney in 1885.
5 portraits in the collection
Amanda King is a Sydney-based visual artist and producer and director of film documentaries.
1 portrait in the collection
Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools as a seventeen year-old in 1774 and exhibited at the Academy regularly from this time until 1804.
2 portraits in the collection
Henry Hoppner Meyer, thought to be the son of an engraver, was a nephew of the painter John Hoppner.
2 portraits in the collection
Alan Sumner MBE (1911-1994) was a painter, printmaker, teacher and stained glass designer.
1 portrait in the collection
Eliza Lucy Spencer (c. 1819-1898) was the daughter of the Government Resident at Albany, who was succeeded by George Grey.
1 portrait in the collection
Shane Dye (b. 1966), jockey, was born in Matamata, New Zealand, and served his apprenticeship in New Zealand before coming to Australia in 1985.
2 portraits in the collection
Richard von Marientreu was born in Poland and attended military academies in Cracow and Vienna before leaving for Prague, where he studied at the Academy of Painting.
2 portraits in the collection
Photographers Andrew Taylor and George Taylor opened their first studio in Cannon Street in east London in 1866.
1 portrait in the collection
Adrian Lawlor, critic and artist, came to Australia from his native England at the age of about twenty.
2 portraits in the collection
James Cassius Williamson (1845-1913), actor and theatrical entrepreneur, worked and performed in theatres in his native USA before coming to Victoria under contract to George Selth Coppin in 1874.
1 portrait in the collection
David Ian Campese (b. 1962) is the world's leading representative rugby union footballer, having played 101 tests for Australia between 1982 and 1996.
1 portrait in the collection
Betina Fauvel-Ogden was born in Adelaide and lives and works in Melbourne.
2 portraits in the collection
Arthur Summons (1935-2020), footballer, played fly-half in ten rugby union test matches for the Wallabies between 1956 and 1960 before joining rugby league's Western Suburbs Magpies in 1960.
1 portrait in the collection
Karin Catt grew up in Newcastle, where she began taking photographs of touring bands while a schoolgirl, and also in London and Hong Kong.
9 portraits in the collection
Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson GCB GCMG (1843–1910) was appointed governor of New South Wales in January 1902 having distinguished himself in the course of various conflicts as an officer of the Royal Navy.
1 portrait in the collection
Nick Enright (1950-2003), playwright and screenwriter, attended Sydney University and the New York University School of the Arts before establishing himself as a dramatist with plays such as Summer Rain and Mongrels.
2 portraits in the collection
John Schaeffer AO (1940–2020), businessman, connoisseur and philanthropist, was a founding benefactor of the National Portrait Gallery.
1 portrait in the collection
Margaret Anderson GM (1915–1995) served with the Australian Army Nursing Service during the Second World War in Singapore.
1 portrait in the collection
Hugh Ramsay (1877-1906), painter, was born in Scotland but arrived in Australia as a baby.
3 portraits in the collection
Lowe Kong Meng (1831–1888), merchant, was born and grew up in the British colony of Penang and came to Melbourne in 1853.
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
Georgina ‘Ina’ Gregory (1874-1964) grew up with her sister Ada at Rosedale, her family home in East St Kilda.
1 portrait in the collection
David Jones (1793-1873), merchant, began his retail career in Pembrokeshire and London before emigrating to Sydney via Hobart.
1 portrait in the collection
The Crown Studio was a Sydney-based firm situated on the corner of Market and George streets.
3 portraits in the collection
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl Liverpool, Lord Hawkesbury (1770–1828), statesman, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827.
2 portraits in the collection
Lyndon Dadswell CMG (1908-1986) studied at the Julian Ashton School before working with Rayner Hoff from 1926 to 1929 and Paul Montford from 1929 to 1935.
3 portraits in the collection
John Kaldor, textile designer and manufacturer, was born in Hungary. He came to Australia with his family in 1948.
1 portrait in the collection
Henry Sadd was born in London and exhibited engravings there before emigrating to the USA some time around 1840.
8 portraits in the collection
Peter Purves Smith (1912–1949), artist, went to Geelong Grammar with his lifelong friend Russell Drysdale.
2 portraits in the collection
Neville Gruzman AM (1925–2005), architect and lecturer, was born in Sydney, the son of immigrants of Russian heritage.
1 portrait in the collection
David Malangi Daymirringu (1927-1999), Manharrngu, bark painter, printer and designer, was born at Mulanga, near the mouth of the Glyde River, just before Christian missionaries arrived on the nearby island of Milingimbi.
1 portrait in the collection
Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (1811–1861), pastoralist, politician and newspaper proprietor, was born in Sydney, several months after the death of his father, Edward Spencer Wills, a merchant and shipowner who'd arrived in New South Wales under a life sentence for highway robbery in 1799.
2 portraits in the collection
Samuel Johnson Woolf, American painter, lithographer and illustrator, was born in New York City and named after the English essayist Samuel Johnson.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875), colonial administrator, travelled widely in Europe and America before beginning his colonial career in the West Indies in 1837.
3 portraits in the collection
Florrie Forde (1875–1940), singer and music hall performer, was born in Melbourne and was sixteen when she sang publicly for the first time, in Sydney, in late 1891.
9 portraits in the collection
Matthew Flinders (1774–1814), was one of the world’s most accomplished navigators.
2 portraits in the collection
Dr Jill Orr (born 1952) is a Melbourne-born contemporary artist, whose performance-based practice has continued to interrogate the environmental concerns since the 1970s.
1 portrait in the collection
New Jersey-born Jim Rolon (b. 1956) began working as a photographer for a family portrait company in his twenties.
6 portraits in the collection
Adam Knott (b. 1966) began taking photographs for local newspapers as a schoolboy in St George, South Sydney.
7 portraits in the collection
David Foster OAM (b. 1957), champion axeman, is the most successful competitor in the history of the sport of woodchopping.
1 portrait in the collection
Norman Lindsay (1879-1969), artist, cartoonist, and writer, came from a family that produced five artists.
14 portraits in the collection
Roy de Maistre (Roi (Leroy) de Mestre) CBE (1894-1968), painter, studied music at the Sydney Conservatorium, but was also a student at the RAS School with Dattilo Rubbo and later the Sydney Art School with Julian Ashton.
1 portrait in the collection
Julia Margaret Cameron was of the most important photographers of the nineteenth century.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Robert William Duff (1835–1895) was governor of New South Wales from May 1893 until March 1895.
2 portraits in the collection
William Buckley (1780-1856), known as 'the wild white man', was transported for life in 1802 for receiving stolen cloth.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Thomas Phillips was born in Dudley, Warwickshire and initially trained as a glass painter before moving to London, aged 20, with a letter of introduction to the painter Benjamin West.
6 portraits in the collection
Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818-1866), actor, was a seasoned theatre performer by his early teens; at fourteen, he played Richard III.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Asher Joel (1912-1998), public relations entrepreneur and state politician, started out as a copyboy at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
1 portrait in the collection
Talma Studios opened in Sydney in March 1899 in a George Street premises next door to the GPO.
1 portrait in the collection
The Warumpi Band burst onto the Australian music scene in 1984 with the release of their first album Big Name, No Blankets.
2 portraits in the collection
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
Eric Thake (1904-1982), printmaker, painter and photographer, trained at the National Gallery School and the George Bell School and showed with the Contemporary Group in Melbourne between 1932 and 1938 before serving as an official war artist in the RAAF.
7 portraits in the collection
Dorothy Gordon (Jenner) OBE, ‘Andrea’ (1891-1985), actress, dressmaker, stuntwoman, journalist, radio broadcaster and charity fundraiser, grew up on a property near Narrabri and attended boarding school in Sydney before gaining a part as a chorus girl in Girl in a Train in Melbourne in 1912.
2 portraits in the collection
Ray Crooke AM grew up in Melbourne, where after army service in WA, North Queensland and Borneo, he trained at Swinburne Tech from 1946 to 1948.
3 portraits in the collection
Harry Williams (b. 1951) is a Wiradjuri man and the first Indigenous footballer to represent Australia at international level.
1 portrait in the collection
Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879) photographer, artist and Anglican clergyman, arrived in Hobart in 1843 to take up the role of Bishop of Tasmania.
2 portraits in the collection
Charles Warman Roberts (1821–1894), publican, was born in Sydney, the eldest son of free settler parents who emigrated to Australia in 1821.
1 portrait in the collection
Alfred William Cox (1857–1919), racehorse owner and breeder, was born in Liverpool, England, the son of a successful cotton broker.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir William John Lyne (1844-1913), politician, was a Premier of New South Wales and a minister in the first Australian parliament.
1 portrait in the collection
Jon Lewis (1950-2020) was born in Maryland, USA, and came to Australia in 1951.
3 portraits in the collection
Evert Ploeg began his career as a commercial illustrator in the mid-1980s.
7 portraits in the collection
Tamara Tchinarova (1919–2017), dancer, was one of the original 'baby ballerinas' of the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo.
2 portraits in the collection
Clif Peir (b.1905) was a Sydney painter and teacher, who studied at the Julian Ashton School under Ashton and H.C.Gibbons.
1 portrait in the collection
Ken Done (b. 1940), painter, studied at East Sydney Tech before becoming an advertising graphic designer.
3 portraits in the collection
Charles Wheeler OBE (1881–1977), artist, won the Archibald Prize in 1933 for a portrait of the popular Melbourne-based writer Ambrose Pratt.
8 portraits in the collection
Jim Paterson, painter, printmaker and sculptor, was born in Melbourne and completed his diploma in Fine Arts at Prahran Technical College in 1969.
1 portrait in the collection
Mel Gibson (b. 1956), actor, was born in New York state, the sixth of eleven children of a railroad brakeman and an Australian opera singer.
1 portrait in the collection
Greg Weight is a Sydney-based photographer who grew up in Dee Why. He opened his own studio in 1968, taking advertising and magazine photographs and working with the Australian Opera and the Australian Ballet.
113 portraits in the collection
Anthony Mundine (b. 1975), Bundjalung boxer and former rugby league player, was born in Newtown in Sydney's inner south and began his career playing league for Hurstville United.
2 portraits in the collection
David Alexander Stewart Campbell (1898-1970), wool buyer and journal editor, undertook a woolclassing course in Sydney, worked as a jackeroo, served in the AIF in Egypt and gained further experience with wool in England before he was inducted into the wool trade in Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Ralph Barton, American cartoonist and caricaturist, produced a body of work that epitomises American high life in the 1920s.
1 portrait in the collection
James Gillray, caricaturist and printmaker, was born in Chelsea and learned the art of engraving as a youth in London.
1 portrait in the collection
Alexander George Mitchell (1911-1997), academic, studied English literature and language at the University of Sydney and the University of London before joining the English department of the University of Sydney, where he assumed the McCaughey Chair of Early English Literature and Language in 1947.
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
Elizabeth Rouse (née Adams, 1772–1849), colonial spouse, arrived in New South Wales as a free settler in 1801 with her husband, Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and their first two children, one of whom had been born on the voyage out.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836–1918), politician and governor, studied law and modern history at Oxford, but abandoned law for a career in politics two years after being called to the Bar.
1 portrait in the collection
John Passmore (1904-1984), painter, studied with Julian Ashton in Sydney between the ages of fourteen and twenty-nine, and took some instruction from George Lambert.
1 portrait in the collection
Ernest Hutcheson (1871-1951), pianist, composer and music teacher, started performing at the age of five.
1 portrait in the collection
Noongar, Yamatji, Wongi man, Kenneth George Wyatt AM (b. 1952) is an Australian politician.
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.
3 portraits in the collection
Ada May Plante (1875–1950), artist, was born in New Zealand and came to Melbourne with her family in 1888.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Wurati (active 1830s, d. 1842), was a Nuennone man from Bruny Island, a skilled hunter, boat builder and renowned storyteller who spoke five dialects.
2 portraits in the collection
Will Huxley grew up in the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, and Garrett Huxley was raised on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
3 portraits in the collection
Irina Baronova (1919–2008) was one of the three legendary 'baby ballerinas' of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, who created an international dance sensation in the 1930s and 1940s.
1 portrait in the collection
Stevie Wright (1947-2015), singer songwriter, came to Australia from England at the age of nine.
2 portraits in the collection
Peter Elliott AM (1927–2014) was an obstetrician, gynaecologist and gynaecological oncologist as well as a significant art collector and patron.
6 portraits in the collection
Dr Elizabeth Cameron Dalman OAM (b. 1934), choreographer, teacher and performer, was born in Adelaide and trained in classical ballet and modern dance with Nora Stewart.
1 portrait in the collection
Janine Burke (b. 1952) art historian, biographer, novelist and curator, graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1974.
1 portrait in the collection
Magda Szubanski AO (b. 1961), actor and writer, was born in Liverpool, England and moved to Australia when she was four.
1 portrait in the collection
Maurice Appleby Felton (1803-1842) arrived in Sydney with his wife and four children in late 1839 as surgeon to the immigrant ship the Royal Admiral.
3 portraits in the collection
Vali Myers (1930-2003) artist, vagabond and agitator, was born near Box Hill and moved to Melbourne at the age of eleven.
1 portrait in the collection
Dame Margery Merlyn Baillieu Myer DBE (1900–1982), philanthropist and fundraiser, was the daughter of a hotelier, George Baillieu.
1 portrait in the collection
Garrett Huxley (b. 1973) was born in Melbourne and raised on the Gold Coast.
3 portraits in the collection
Will Huxley (b. 1982) was born in Bath, England, emigrating with his family at the age of seven to grow up in the suburbs of Perth.
3 portraits in the collection
John David Armstrong (1857–1943) was a sideshow and vaudeville performer known as ‘The Australian Tom Thumb’.
2 portraits in the collection
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
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
Emil Otto Hoppe (1878–1972) is considered one of the most important and influential portrait and documentary photographers of the twentieth century.
2 portraits in the collection
William Hardy Wilson (1881-1955) - or Hardy Wilson, as he styled himself - is regarded as one of the most significant and visionary Australian architects of the twentieth century.
1 portrait in the collection
Nancy Menetrey (née Wilkinson) (1924-2024) was born in Sydney in 1924.
1 portrait in the collection
Pixie O’Harris MBE (1903–1991), author and illustrator, was born Rona Olive Harris in Cardiff, one of the eight children of painter, George Frederick Harris.
1 portrait in the collection
James George Beaney (1828–1891), doctor and philanthropist, completed an apprenticeship to a surgeon in his home town of Canterbury, Kent, before leaving to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
1 portrait in the collection
William Strutt arrived in Melbourne in 1850 having undertaken his training in art in Paris in the late 1830s.
1 portrait in the collection
Emily Hilda Rix left Australia in March 1907, having trained for three years at the National Gallery School.
1 portrait in the collection
William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was Tory prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 to 1801, and of United Kingdom from 1804 to 1806.
1 portrait in the collection
Grace Cossington Smith OBE (1892–1984) was a pioneer of modernist art in Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Andres Serrano, photographer, grew up in New York. After leaving school at fifteen to pursue a career as an artist he attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School between 1967 and 1969.
1 portrait in the collection
William Baker Ashton (1800-1854) was the first governor of Adelaide Gaol.
1 portrait in the collection
John Gould (1804–1881) is known as the ‘father of Australian ornithology’ for his Birds of Australia, published in seven volumes between 1840 and 1848.
1 portrait in the collection
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell KG GCMG PC (1792 –1878) was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841 and served twice as Prime Minister of Great Britain, in 1846-1852 and 1865-1866.
1 portrait in the collection
RM (Reginald Murray) Williams AO CBE (1908-2003), saddlery, boot and clothing manufacturer, miner and author, moved to Adelaide from his birthplace near the Flinders Rangers when he was 10.
1 portrait in the collection
The ‘first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America’ was in fact the second Australian cricket side to contest matches internationally (a team of Indigenous players having done so in 1868), but it is considered the first official national representative team to tour overseas.
1 portrait in the collection
David Strachan (1919–1970), painter and printmaker, was educated at Geelong Grammar School and then studied art at the Slade School in London.
2 portraits in the collection
Arthur Murch, artist, is best-known as a painter in a colourful cubistic style, but he was occupied with sculpture throughout his career.
8 portraits in the collection
Henry (Harry) Edwards (1827–1891), actor and entomologist, arrived in Melbourne in 1853 after a short-lived attempt at studying for a career in law.
1 portrait in the collection
May Emmeline Wirth (1894–1978), circus performer, was once described as the ‘greatest lady bareback rider of all time’.
1 portrait in the collection
Nancy Wake AC (1912–2011) was one of the most-decorated women of the Second World War.
1 portrait in the collection
Henry Wade (1810–1854), surveyor, was trained in surveying at Dublin College before being employed as a civilian assistant by the Royal Engineers Corps.
1 portrait in the collection
William Paul Dowling (1824–1877) is thought to have studied art in his native Dublin before settling in London, where he worked as a draughtsman while trying to establish himself as a portraitist.
1 portrait in the collection
Elizabeth Roberts (1812–1833) was the daughter of Warwickshire-born William Roberts (1754–1819) and his wife, Jane (née Longhurst, c.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who subsequently became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
4 portraits in the collection
Arnold Shore, a lifelong inhabitant of Melbourne, was apprenticed to a stained glass and leadlight company called Brooks, Robinson soon after leaving school at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), botanist, formed a boyhood passion for natural history which was encouraged at Ballitore School, County Kildare.
1 portrait in the collection
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), army officer and hero, was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1828 to 1830.
1 portrait in the collection
Louis-Claude Desaulses de Freycinet (1779–1842), hydrographer and cartographer, sailed with Nicolas Baudin on the Expédition aux terres australes, a journey of discovery, commissioned by Napoléon, to the unknown southern coast of New Holland.
1 portrait in the collection
Alison Baily Rehfisch (1900–1975) was born Alison Green in Woollahra, New South Wales, to parents who 'were very interested in painting – in all the arts: music, literature, everything'.
2 portraits in the collection