Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Self portrait with glove
Self portrait with glove
Self portrait with glove

Self portrait with glove, 1939

Herbert Badham
Portrait, oil on canvas board

Purchased 1999

Xavier Herbert (study)
Xavier Herbert (study)
Xavier Herbert (study)

Xavier Herbert (study), c. 1977

Ray Crooke AM
Portrait, oil on canvas on board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

image not online

Xavier Herbert, early 1980s (printed 2018)

Jacqueline Mitelman
Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

HV (Doc) Evatt
HV (Doc) Evatt
HV (Doc) Evatt

HV (Doc) Evatt, 1935

Arnold Shore
Portrait, oil on canvas

Gift of Elizabeth Evatt and Penelope Seidler 1998. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Robert Brown
Robert Brown
Robert Brown

Robert Brown, 1850

Thomas Herbert Maguire
Portrait, lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

image not online

H.B.G Larkin, 1928

L E. Reynolds
Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Edward Lloyd Jones
Edward Lloyd Jones
Edward Lloyd Jones

Edward Lloyd Jones, c. 1885

Herbert Beecroft
Portrait, oil on canvas

Gift of Susanna de Vienne, Sarah Wood and David Lloyd Jones 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

William Jackson Hooker
William Jackson Hooker
William Jackson Hooker

William Jackson Hooker, 1851

Thomas Herbert Maguire
Portrait, lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

William Henry Harvey
William Henry Harvey
William Henry Harvey

William Henry Harvey, c. 1850

Thomas Herbert Maguire
Portrait, lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Bert Hinkler
Bert Hinkler
Bert Hinkler

Bert Hinkler, 1930s

Nison Tregor
Portrait, cast metal with gold finish

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Alan Foulkes in memory of Mark Graham Cleghorn 2012

John Gould
John Gould
John Gould

John Gould, 1849

Thomas Herbert Maguire, M & N Hanhart
Portrait, lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Dr HV Evatt, Albert Namatjira and Dame Mary Gilmore having a meal
Dr HV Evatt, Albert Namatjira and Dame Mary Gilmore having a meal
Dr HV Evatt, Albert Namatjira and Dame Mary Gilmore having a meal

Dr HV Evatt, Albert Namatjira and Dame Mary Gilmore having a meal, c. 1950s

an unknown artist
Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2008

Radical Restraint 
Justice Michael Kirby

Judicial portraits

Magazine article by Leslie Moran, 2007

Leslie Moran investigates the portraits of judges in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs
Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs
Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs

Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO
Portrait, fibre-tipped pen on paper

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

Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs
Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs
Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs

Herbert Cole 'Nugget' Coombs, early 1970s

Louis Kahan AO
Portrait, pen and ink on paper

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

Play, 2010 by Sarah Rhodes

Play, 2010

by Sarah Rhodes
Image
Lowe Kong Meng
Lowe Kong Meng
Lowe Kong Meng

Lowe Kong Meng, c. 1887

Ludwig Lang after Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co
Portrait, tinted lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

image not online

Head of H.C. Coombs, c. 1972 (cast 2018)

Norma Redpath
Portrait, bronze

Purchased 2018

Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener

Lord Kitchener, n.d.

William Howitt
Portrait, carved Jarrah

Purchased 2016

The Honourable Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC
The Honourable Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC
The Honourable Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC

The Honourable Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC, 2018

Yvonne East
Portrait, oil on linen

Gift of the artist 2019 acknowledging Herbert Smith Freehills for supporting the creation of the portrait

Self portrait
Self portrait
Self portrait

Self portrait, c. 1985

Bert Flugelman
Portrait, stainless steel

Gift of the artist 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Study of Louis Nowra
Study of Louis Nowra
Study of Louis Nowra

Study of Louis Nowra, 2018

Imants Tillers
Portrait, synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 64 canvas boards (nos. 108101-108164)

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, John Kaldor AO and Naomi Milgrom AO 2018

Charles Haddon Chambers
Charles Haddon Chambers
Charles Haddon Chambers

Charles Haddon Chambers, 1921

Ralph Barton
Portrait, ink and watercolour on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Self portrait
Self portrait
Self portrait

Self portrait, c. 1911

Frank Hurley OBE
Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Purchased 2005

Smoky Dawson, Sydney
Smoky Dawson, Sydney
Smoky Dawson, Sydney

Smoky Dawson, Sydney, 2004

John Elliott
Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Eric Douglas
Eric Douglas
Eric Douglas

Eric Douglas, c. 1930

Frank Hurley OBE
Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Gift of Sally Douglas 2009

Self portrait with glove

To Look Within

Self Portraits in Australia
Previous exhibition, 2004

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

Jude Rae, 2016 by Mark Mohell

Jude Rae

Explore The Popular Pet Show

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

Self portrait

Portrait of a Modernist

Magazine article by Dimity Goldie, 2003

The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.

Anna Matveyevna Pavlova (1885–1931)

The Pavlova

About Face article

It is a painful truth, but one which must be faced up to, that the pavlova, that iconic Australian dessert, a staple since the 1930s, was actually invented in New Zealand.

Study of Louis Nowra

Study of Louis Nowra, 2018

by Imants Tillers
General content

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AO, John Kaldor AO and Naomi Milgrom AO 2018

Dame Mabel Brookes

The hands have it

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2016

Angus Trumble treats the gallery’s collection with a dab hand.

Self portrait with gladioli

Facing Facts

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.

Study for self-portrait, 1963

Inside outside

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2010

Michael Desmond explores the portraiture of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

Charles Haddon Chambers

Suave

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.

Studio portrait of Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, 1914 by J Russell & Sons

All the way with K of K

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2016

Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.

Self portrait

Of ice and men

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Frank Hurley's celebrated images document the heroism and minutiae of Australian exploration in Antarctica.

Jessie Street

Australia’s great internationalists

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.

Sir Douglas Mawson

Staying home

True south #2
About Face article

Joanna Gilmour brings a mindful Douglas Mawson’s perspective to bear on the concept of isolation.

The sisters, 1904

Beguiling impressions

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2012

Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.

Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and David R. L. Litchfield at Villa Favorita, Lugano, Switzerland, 1989 © Nicola Graydo

The Thyssen Art Macabre

About Face article

Books seldom make me angry but this one did. At first, I was powerfully struck by the uncanny parallels that existed between the Mellons of Pittsburgh and the Thyssens of the Ruhr through the same period, essentially the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Helen Borthwick née Pearson

The personal and the historical

About Face article

Where do we draw a line between the personal and the historical? Although she died in Melbourne in 1975, when I was not quite eleven years old, I have the vividest memories of my maternal grandmother Helen Borthwick.

The Bare story

General content

Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be

Lesley Harding

Faces of war

Lecture, 14 May 2011
General content

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.

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency