What's on

The Portraits

Watch

The Gallery

Governance & Board

Circle of Friends

Learn

Access

Search the website

close close

What's on The Portraits The Gallery Learn Watch More O

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.

Search / iain wright

Professor Iain Wright, 1996

Robin Wallace-Crabbe, Dianne Fogwell

Portrait, etching

Gift of the artist 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Professor Iain McCalman, 1996

Robin Wallace-Crabbe, Dianne Fogwell

Portrait, etching

Gift of the artist 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated

Hon. J A. Wright MLC

Biography

The Hon. J.A. Wright was a delegate from Western Australia to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney, 1891.

1 portrait in the collection

Tribute

Stevie Wright

Magazine article, 2016

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

Stevie Wright

Biography

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

2 portraits in the collection

Judith Wright

Biography

Judith Wright (1915–2000), poet, conservationist and Aboriginal land rights campaigner, was born at Thalgaroch Station, near Armidale, NSW, into a pastoralist family whose origins go back to the first settlement in the Hunter Valley in the 1820s.

3 portraits in the collection

Alexis Wright

Biography

Alexis Wright (b. 1950), author and activist, won the Miles Franklin Award in 2007 for her novel Carpentaria and the 2018 Stella Prize for her collective memoir Tracker.

1 portrait in the collection

Stevie Wright, 1975 (printed 2011)

Gary Ede

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Stevie Wright, London

Gary Ede

Image

Judith Wright, 1988 (printed 2021)

Jacqueline Mitelman

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Purchased with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AC 2021

Stevie Wright, 2003 (printed 2005)

Gregory McBean

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Alexis Wright, 2009

by Ingvar Kenne

Image

Alexis Wright, 2009 (printed 2014)

Ingvar Kenne

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Gift of the artist 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Jamie Wright, c. 2000

Penny Tweedie

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004

Peter Wright, 1999

Greg Weight

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The family, c. 1955

Charles Blackman OBE

Portrait, oil on board

Gift of Barbara Blackman 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Stevie

Magazine article by Gregory McBean, 2005

Gregory McBean writes about photographing recent ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, singer Stevie Wright.

All in the Family

Magazine article by Barbara Blackman AO, 2003

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.

The Family

by Charles Blackman

Portrait story

Meredith McKinney, subject of Charles Blackman's 'The Family', recounts memories from her childhood and the creation of the portrait.

Big bouquet of Blackmans

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.

Lieutenant King, 1789

William Skelton after J. Wright

Portrait, engraving on paper

Purchased 2010

Sammy (Samuel Wood), 1892

Henry Seppings-Wright, Vanity Fair Magazine

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Purchased 2010

Sydney city (Patrick White and Tom Uren, Hiroshima Day demonstration), 1984

The activist A-list

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

Dr Sarah Engledow examines a number of figures in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery who were pioneers or substantial supporters of the seminal Australian environmental campaigns of the early 1970s and 1980s.

Judith Wright with Barbara Blackman, c. 1956

Charles Blackman OBE

Portrait, oil on paper laid down on board

Gift of Joanna McNiven 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891 from Australasia Illustrated, 1891

an unknown artist

Portrait, engraving on paper (4 sheets)

Purchased 2009

Friendship’s rhyme and reason

Nearest & Dearest

Poetic trio

Barbara Blackman, 2008

Gorgi Dimcevski

Portrait, oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2009

Self portrait (Hilda in the Chinoise hat)

Self portrait (Hilda in the Chinoise hat), c. 1913

Hilda Rix Nicholas

Portrait, pastel and coloured pencil on paper

Gift of Bronwyn Wright 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Literary lovers’ life liaison

Lust

Desire drives forbidden love

Girl (portrait of Barbara Blackman), 1969

Charles Blackman OBE

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Purchased 2009

Autumn evenings golden glow, c.1942 by Hilda Rix Nicholas

Paris to Monaro

Pleasures from the studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas

Previous exhibition, 2013

After successfully exploring the art scenes of London, France and Morocco, Hilda Rix Nicholas settled at Knockalong, a property near Delegate, on the Monaro plain in the 1920s.

Barbara Blackman AO

Biography

Barbara Blackman AO (b. 1928), writer, poet and arts patron, was only fifteen when the ABC Weekly published one of her poems.

5 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

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

Annual Appeal

The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.

2014-15 Acquisition Fund

Annual Appeal

Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.

Hilda Rix Nicholas

Biography

Emily Hilda Rix left Australia in March 1907, having trained for three years at the National Gallery School.

1 portrait in the collection

Lina Bryans

Biography

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

James Heath

Biography

James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.

2 portraits in the collection

David Brooks

Biography

David Brooks, poet, literary critic and academic, studied in the early 1970s at the Australian National University, where he fell in with a group of Canberra writers including AD Hope, Rosemary Dobson, David Campbell and Judith Wright and co-founded Open Door Press with Alan Gould.

1 portrait in the collection

Leeanne Crisp

Biography

Leeanne Crisp (b. 1950) was born in Adelaide, where she attended the South Australian School of Art and gained an advanced diploma from the Western Teacher's College in 1972.

3 portraits in the collection

Emile Sherman

Biography

Emile Sherman (b. 1972), film producer, graduated from the University of New South Wales before beginning his career with a documentary about his great-great-uncle Chatzkel, a Lithuanian Jew who lived through both world wars and the Bolshevik revolution.

3 portraits in the collection

Sir Sidney Kidman, 1932

Samuel Woolf

Portrait, charcoal heightened with white chalk on paper

Purchased 2009

Professor A D Hope, Canberra, 1963 (printed 2000)

David Moore

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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.

Icons Syndicate

Lists alphabetically

Honour board

Ross Edwards

Biography

Ross Edwards (b. 1943), composer, became determined upon a life of composition as a child.

1 portrait in the collection

Face House – Kyoto, Japan Architect: Kazumasa Yamashita

Alter ego

Magazine article by Tom Fryer, 2021

Tom Fryer surveys the twentieth-century architectural project, and finds representation and the portrait were integral elements.

Alison Rehfisch

Biography

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

2020 Annual Appeal

Annual Appeal

In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.

Some women you may not know

Alison Alder

‘Everybody’s lives are built by so many influences, and for me, it is writers, artists and activists who have influenced how I think about the world.’

Studio portrait of servicewoman Lance Corporal Kathleen Jean Mary (Kath) Walker, c.1942

Past present

Magazine article by Krysia Kitch, 2016

Krysia Kitch celebrates Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

One hundred days at 7pm 2015 by Fiona McMonagle

Self-effacing

Magazine article by Michael Wardell, 2016

Michael Wardell samples the fare in the University of Queensland National Self-portrait Prize.

Amy Johnson wearing a woollen suit from the collection of flight clothes designed by Madame Schiaparelli for her solo flight from London to Cape Town, 1938 unknown photographer

Air wear

Magazine article by Esther Agostino, 2015

Aviation carried women’s roles in society to greater heights – fashion followed suit.

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

Previous exhibition, 2023

This sample of 56 photographs takes in some of the smallest photographs we own and some of the largest, some of the earliest and some of the most recent, as well as multiple photographic processes from daguerreotypes to digital media.

2023 Annual Appeal

Annual Appeal

In 2023 the Annual Appeal was focussed on a work by one of Australia's best loved and most successful portrait painters, Judy Cassab AO CBE, depicting model, entrepreneur and deportment icon, June Dally-Watkins OAM.

Give me five

Magazine article by Karen Quinlan AM, 2021

National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan AM nominates her quintet of favourites from the collection, with early twentieth-century ‘selfies’ filling the roster.

Annual Appeal

Listed by year

Honour board

Cormac + Callum Kenne, My Children, Sydney, Australia, 2009

Citizen Kenne

Magazine article by April Thompson, 2013

April Thompson explores an exhibition of Ingvar Kenne’s global portrait project.

Poets' Portraits

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

The Portrait Gallery's paintings of two poets, Les Murray and Peter Porter, demonstrate two very different artists' responses to the challenge of representing more than usually sensitive and imaginative men.

Material culture

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.

Karl Robert, Count Nesselrode, 1818 by Sir Thomas Lawrence

The Lawrence lustre

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2019

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

A Family Being Served with Tea, ca. 1745 by an unknown artist

A reflection on conversation pieces

About Face article

There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.

Starry knight

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Aircraft designer, pilot and entrepreneur, Sir Lawrence Wackett rejoins friends and colleagues on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Honour board

Christmas Island

About Face article

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay

General content

Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.

65 results

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

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