Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
Purchased 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Adrian McGlusky 2013
It wasn’t uncommon for the pro-beard fraternity of the mid nineteenth century to cite beards as a sign of wisdom on the grounds that Socrates and other ancient philosophers had worn them.
Although the tough, weathered, hard-drinking bushmen of the kind mythologised by writers like Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson are popularly associated with the character of late nineteenth century Australia, it was also a time when alternative ideas about identity began to come into play.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2012
This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.
Celebrates the centenary of the first national art collection, the Historic Memorials Collection, housed at Australia's Parliament House.
Andrew Sayers asks whether a portrait can truly be the examination of a life.
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Family affections are preserved in a fine selection of intimate portraits.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the family of Sir Victor and Lady Windeyer 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ron Wylie 2007
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
The story behind two colonial portraits; a lithograph of captain and convict John Knatchbull and newspaper illustration of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ronald Walker 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Tom Roberts (1856–1931), artist, came to Australia from England at the age of 13, but returned eight years later to study art in London.
12 portraits in the collection
Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke (1811-1892), politician, studied and tutored in law at Oxford before coming to Australia in 1842.
4 portraits in the collection
The Hon Sir Henry Parkes GCMG (1815-1896) was five times premier of New South Wales between 1872 and 1891, and a consistent advocate for union of the colonies (Federation).
4 portraits in the collection
Francis Gardiner (Christie) (1830-c. 1903), bushranger, came to New South Wales with his family as a child.
1 portrait in the collection
Henry (Thomas Henry) Kendall (1839-1882) was once regarded as the finest poet Australia had produced.
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
Mary Windeyer (née Bolton, 1837-1912), women's rights campaigner, was one of the nine children of Robert Thorley Bolton, a clergyman who emigrated to New South Wales in 1839.
3 portraits in the collection
The Hon Sir Saul Samuel Bart KCMG CB (1820-1900), merchant, politician, company director and landowner, was the first Jewish legislator in New South Wales and the first Jew to become a minister of the Crown.
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
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
