Search / jackie french

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Leonard French

Leonard French OBE (1928-2017) left school at fourteen to become an apprentice signwriter in his native Melbourne.

3 portraits in the collection

George French Angas

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

Self portrait, 1846

George French Angas

Purchased 1999

Leonard French, 1980s (printed 2018)

Jacqueline Mitelman

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Leonard French, Heathcote, Victoria, 1969 (printed 2000)

George French Angas, Thomas McLean

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
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

South Australian Illustrated (Plate 35), 1847

Portrait, Lithograph

Rudy Komon and Leonard French, Beaumaris, Melbourne

Rudy Komon and Leonard French, Beaumaris, Melbourne, 1967 (printed 2000)

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.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Powerful, equal, legal love

Devotion

Three weddings

Jean Baptiste Guth

French artist Jean Baptiste Guth was a regular contributor of portraits to Vanity Fair during the late 1880s and throughout the 1890s.

1 portrait in the collection

Louis Antoine de Bougainville

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), explorer, was an outstanding soldier, sailor and navigator who was gifted, too, in many intellectual spheres.

2 portraits in the collection

Nicolas Baudin, Capitaine de Vaisseau. Commandant I'Expedition pour le tour du Monde et Specialement relatif aux Sciences et auz Arts, entreprise en I'An gme, 1800

Nicholas Baudin

Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754–1803), cartographic surveyor and naturalist, was sent by the French government to survey the coast of Australia in 1800.

1 portrait in the collection

J.S.C. Dumont d'Urville. Commandant l'Expedition de l'Astrolabe

Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville

François Bonneville after Joseph Jauffret

Rear Admiral Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), French explorer, made two journeys passing through the Pacific in the years between 1826 and 1840.

2 portraits in the collection

Nicolas Baudin, Capitaine de Vaisseau. Commandant I'Expedition pour le tour du Monde et Specialement relatif aux Sciences et auz Arts, entreprise en I'An gme, 1800, 1800

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Jules Poret de Blosseville

Jules Poret de Blosseville (1802-1833), geographer, navigator and explorer, was a junior officer on the Coquille, which, under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey, conducted a voyage to Oceania and South America between 1822 and 1825.

1 portrait in the collection

Jean-François de Galaup La Perouse

Jean-François de Galaup la Pérouse, Comte de la Pérouse (1741-1788), navigator, joined the French navy as a boy, rising to the rank of captain and serving with distinction and humanity in campaigns against the English in Hudson Bay in 1782.

4 portraits in the collection

J.S.C. Dumont d'Urville. Commandant l'Expedition de l'Astrolabe, c. 1833

Antoine Maurin

Thomas Woolnoth, William Mackenzie, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London & New York

Purchased 2009

La Perouse, 1830s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Baron Jacques Hamelin

Baron Jacques Hamelin (1768-1839), French naval officer, began his sailing career at seventeen, making his first long voyage on a merchant marine ship to and from Angola.

1 portrait in the collection

Rachel Griffiths AM

Rachel Griffiths (b. 1968) studied education at Victoria College before working with the community theatre group Woolly Jumpers, Inc.

1 portrait in the collection

Georgie Swift

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

Portrait 40

July - August 2011

Magazine

This issue features Claudia Karvan & Jimmy Pozarik, Agus Suwage & Contemporary Portraiture from Asia, Fred Williams, Zhong Chen, John Bell, The French Antipodes and more.

Lady Packer, 1968

Cecil Beaton

Nicolas-Martin Petit after Barthélemy Roger

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Florence Packer 2004

Nourou-gal-derri, 1807-1817

Purchased 2009

Joseph Jauffret

Joseph Jauffret was master of appeals to the French council of state from 1814 to 1836 and was created a count in 1823.

1 portrait in the collection

Nancy Wake AC

Thomas Stewart after Jean Laurent Mosnier

Nancy Wake AC (1912–2011) was one of the most-decorated women of the Second World War.

1 portrait in the collection

Chevalier d'Éon

La Pérouse, c. 1830s

N Mague, Blaisot

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009

Edward Telford Simpson

Edward Telford Simpson (1889-1965), Alice's grandson, was born the only son of Edward Percy Simpson and his wife Anne.

1 portrait in the collection

Jean Francois Rigaud

Jean François Rigaud, French/ Italian artist, trained in Italy, where he became a member of the Bologna Academy in 1766.

1 portrait in the collection

Une Femme Amoureuse, Self portrait as Mireille Mathieu

Yvette Coppersmith

The tennis player (Ken Rosewall), 2010

Sinead Davies

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010

Margaux

Meng-Yu Yan

House painters, 2019

Graham Monro

Ken Rosewall AM MBE

Ken Rosewall AM MBE (b. 1934), champion tennis player, won the Australian Open in 1953 and again nineteen years later in 1972 (he remains both the youngest, and oldest, person to win the title).

1 portrait in the collection

Rachel Griffiths, 2002 (printed 2004)

Karin Catt

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Compte de Lacepede

Bernard-Germain-Etienne de la Ville sur Illon, comte de Lacépède (1756-1825), French naturalist, held the chair of the study of reptiles and fishes in the Jardin des Plantes, formerly the Jardin du Roi.

1 portrait in the collection

François Jacques Dequevauvillier

François Jacques Dequevauviller was the son of the French engraver Nicolas-Barthelemy François Dequevauviller (1745–1807).

1 portrait in the collection

Tony Roche

Tony Roche, a left-hander with a fine backhand volley who was twice ranked No 2 in the world, was born the son of a Tarcutta butcher in 1945.

2 portraits in the collection

Paul Gaimard

Paul Gaimard (1796-1858), naturalist and naval surgeon, joined the French navy after distinguishing himself at the naval medical school at Toulon.

1 portrait in the collection

Jack Brabham, 1967 (printed 2012)

Brian McInerney

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Charles Rodius

Charles Rodius (aka Rhodius) was born in Germany and went to England sometime before 1829, when he was convicted of stealing a reticule and transported to NSW for seven years.

4 portraits in the collection

Nicolas-Martin Petit

Nicholas-Martin Petit was born in Paris, the son of a fan maker, and learned graphic art in the studio of Jacques Louis David.

9 portraits in the collection

Blek Bala MJ, 2017

by Timothy Hillier

Finalist, DPA 2017
Single channel HD digital video

Richard Howe

Richard Howe (1st Earl Howe, 1726–1799), naval commander, served in the Royal Navy for over fifty years, seeing action in the Seven Years War, the American Wars of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait (Hilda in the Chinoise hat)

Hilda Rix Nicholas

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

1 portrait in the collection

The Right Honourable William Pitt

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

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

Duke of Wellington, 1841

John Lucas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016

François Bonneville

François Bonneville was one of the leading French engravers of the period of the Revolution, selling his works at the Imprimérie du Cercle Social on the Rue du Théâtre-Francais until 1797, and then, until 1814, at successive premises on the Rue Saint Jacques.

2 portraits in the collection

Edwin Dalton

Edwin Dalton was an English painter, photographer and lithographer who spent some time in North America before setting up as a portrait painter in Melbourne in 1853.

5 portraits in the collection

Ambroise Tardieu

Ambroise Tardieu (1788–1841) was a leading French cartographer and engraver.

1 portrait in the collection

Nicola Dickson

Contributing artists

Born: 1959, Southport, QLD
Works: Canberra

Roland Wakelin

Roland Wakelin was born in New Zealand and studied at the RAS school in Sydney under Dattilo Rubbo from 1912 to 1914.

1 portrait in the collection

Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton was born and grew up in Berlin, which he fled in 1938 to escape persecution as a Jew.

1 portrait in the collection

N Schiavonetti

Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, studied art for several years before being employed by an engraver named Testolini to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which Testolini passed off as his own.

1 portrait in the collection

Chrissy Grishin

Chrissie Grishin (b. 1954), printmaker and painter, exhibits under the name of G W Bot, derived from an eighteenth-century French reference to the wombat as ‘le grand Wam Bot’ and adopted in tribute to the animal with which she has taken as her totem.

1 portrait in the collection

James Quinn

Pleasures from the studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas

James Quinn was born in Melbourne and trained at the NGV School before studying in Paris from the mid-1890s to 1902.

1 portrait in the collection

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

Paris to Monaro

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.

Professor Sasha Grishin AM

Sasha Grishin AM (birth date undisclosed) is the Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History at the Australian National University.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster

Johann Georg Forster

Johann Georg(e) Forster (1754-1794), writer, made his first voyage of exploration - to Russia - with his father when he was eleven.

1 portrait in the collection

E. Phillips Fox

Between 1887 and 1892 Emanuel Phillips Fox studied and painted in France and England.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet

by Tiyan Melissa Kilie Baker

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

Lost Love, Yiyi is tired, and Waiting on the bridge, 2014

Winner, MDPA 2014

Hal Hattam

Harold 'Hal' Hattam (1913-1994), doctor, artist and art collector, came to Australia from his native Scotland at the age of seven.

1 portrait in the collection

Rev. Margaret Court AC MBE

The Rev. Margaret Court AC MBE (b. 1942) has won more major tennis championships than any other player, having acquired 62 Grand Slam titles between 1960 and 1975.

1 portrait in the collection

Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl (born March 7, 1960 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech tennis player.

1 portrait in the collection

Lady Florence Packer

Lady Florence Packer (1915-2012) was born in Paris to Edmond Porges, a major in the British Army, and his Russian wife Marie-Mathilde Brodsky.

1 portrait in the collection

Evelyn Chapman

Evelyn Chapman studied with Dattilo Rubbo in Sydney and travelled overseas to paint in Paris, where she exhibited at the Salon.

1 portrait in the collection

Antoine Fauchery

Antoine Fauchery (1823–1861) was a Parisian artist and writer, an occasional collaborator with Henri Murger, author of Scènes de la vie de bohème which was a chief source of the opera La bohème.

2 portraits in the collection

René Primevère Lesson

René Primevère Lesson (1794–1849), French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist, entered the Naval Medical School in Rochefort at the age of sixteen.

1 portrait in the collection

Marcie Elizabeth Fairfax

Marcie Elizabeth 'Betty' Fairfax (1907–1995) was a leading figure in fashionable circles in Sydney in the 1920s and 1930s.

1 portrait in the collection

George Hoyningen-Huene

Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (1900–1968) was a high-profile American fashion photographer and Hollywood figure.

1 portrait in the collection

Robert Klippel, 1979

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 1998

Robert Klippel, 1993

Greg Weight

Portrait, oil on masonite

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

Hal Hattam, 1960

Fred Williams

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Hattam family in memory of Hal and Kate Hattam 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Gladys Hope Marks

Gladys Hope Marks (1883–1970), university lecturer and women's rights activist, was born in Brisbane.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

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

Robert Dessaix

Robert Dessaix (b. 1944) is a Hobart–based writer, translator and literary critic.

2 portraits in the collection

Noel Counihan

Noel Counihan, born in Melbourne, began his career as a press caricaturist, freelancing in Australia, New Zealand and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

1 portrait in the collection

Samuel Woolf

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

Babette Hayes, London, early 1960s

Lewis Morley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Andree Johnson-Bell

Andree Johnston-Bell (1917-2007), pioneer publisher of articles on Australian antiques, was born in China of Belgian parents and educated in Belgium.

1 portrait in the collection

Valentine Green

Portrait, oil on composition board

Valentine Green, engraver, spent two years in a solicitor’s office in Evesham before abandoning the law and becoming a pupil of Robert Hancock, an engraver in Worcester.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait in green hues, c. 1962

Roland Wakelin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Philip Bacon AM 2001
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Insightful

Magazine article by Robert McFarlane, 2004

Henri-Cartier-Bresson invented the grammar for photographing life in the 20th century.

David Gist

David Gist is an Acquisitions Officer at the Australian War Memorial, the most recent position in a career spanning a broad range of fields in the museums sector.

Jimmy and Jane Barnes, 2020

Jesse Lizotte

Purchased 2021

Self portrait, 1911

Evelyn Chapman

Gift of Pamela Thalben-Ball 2007

H. Walter Barnett

H. Walter Barnett (1862-1934) was a leading portrait photographer of the late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar periods.

12 portraits in the collection

Prince Charles Edward Stuart

Louis Gabriel Blanchet

Lew Hoad, 1954

Ern McQuillan OAM

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003

Natalie Imbruglia, 1999

Polly Borland

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Lew Hoad

Lew Hoad (1934-1994), tennis champion, was born in Sydney. He played his first Davis Cup competition in 1952 and helped the Australian team to victory with a thrilling win over Tony Trabert.

1 portrait in the collection

Betty Burstall AM

N Schiavonetti after Thomas Phillips

Betty Burstall AM (1926–2013) played a vital role in the development of theatre in Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, 1812

Portrait, line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Henry Mundy

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

Sir Joseph Banks, 1802

William Ridley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010

A Portrait (Kate Hattam), 1956

Clifton Pugh AO

Portrait, oil on board

Purchased 2006

Anthony Dattilo Rubbo

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Anthony Dattilo Rubbo (1870-1955) was born in Naples and received classical art training in Italy.

1 portrait in the collection

Barry McDonald, 1997

Selina Snow

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999

Maggie, 2023

Del Kathryn Barton

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint and pigment liner on French linen

Commissioned with funds provided by Hayley and James Baillie 2023

Richard Daintree

Failing as a prospector, Richard Daintree (1832-1878) started work as an assistant geologist in 1854, and returned to London to study assaying and metallurgy; while abroad, he became interested in photography.

2 portraits in the collection

Jinx Nolan

Jinx Nolan (b. 1941), artist, is the daughter of writer Cynthia Reed and the adopted daughter of Sidney Nolan, whom Reed married in 1948.

1 portrait in the collection

Mirka and Philippe - 9 Collins Street, c. 1966 (printed 2015)

Lazar Krum

Gift of the artist 2015

Pat Cash, 1999 (printed 2022)

Polly Borland

Purchased 2022

Susan Lord, c. 1840

Henry Mundy

Purchased 2015

Andree Johnston-Bell, c. 1945

Walter Langhammer

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Jocelyne MacLeod 2008

Donald Cameron

Donald Cameron (1927-2018), Melbourne-born painter and teacher, attended Scotch College before beginning work as an engraver for the Commonwealth Bank in 1943.

2 portraits in the collection

Francois Peron

François Péron (1775-1810), naturalist and explorer, served as a soldier from 1792 to 1794, in which period he was imprisoned and lost the sight of one eye.

6 portraits in the collection

Sarah Bernhardt

Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) was acclaimed as the greatest actor of her generation and had roles created for her by some of the finest writers of her age.

2 portraits in the collection

Susan Wakil AO

Susan Wakil AO (1933–2018), philanthropist, came to Sydney at fifteen from Bessarabia (Moldova/Romania).

1 portrait in the collection

Max Schubert, 1980

David Simpson

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew, early 1880s

Hills & Saunders

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Gustav Nossal, 2004

Dean Home

Portrait, oil on board

Purchased with funds provided by Karen McLeod Adair and Anthony Adair 2004

Sir Gustav Nossal, 1979 (printed 1981)

Mark Strizic

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003

Mirka - 9 Collins Street, c. 1966 (printed 2015)

Lazar Krum

Gift of the artist 2015

Portrait of Susan Wakil AO, 2019

Jiawei Shen

Gift of Isaac Wakil AO 2019

Grazia Gunn, 2014

Jacqueline Mitelman

Conrad Westermayr after Jean Henri Cless

Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015

François Péron, c. 1805

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Kate Hattam

Portrait, pencil on paper

Kathleen 'Kate' Hattam (1923–2004), stylesetter and art collector, was born in London and served with the Women’s Royal Air Force during the Second World War, stationed in radar at Beachey Head.

1 portrait in the collection

Marcie Elizabeth Wilson, 1922

George Lambert

Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Ross Watson

Ross Watson specialises in interpolating representations of lithe semi-naked men into copies of paintings by masters such as Vermeer, Ter Borsch, David and Bronzino.

2 portraits in the collection

Louis Kahan AO

Louis Kahan (1905-2002) was born in Vienna, Austria to Jewish parents.

63 portraits in the collection

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, 1824 by James Thomson

Audacity, audacity, audacity

phra ajahn ekaggata fka terry milligan

Angus delves into the biographies of two ambitious characters; Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir John Pope-Hennessy.

Chrissy Grishin, c. 1996 (printed 2012)

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Claudia Hyles 2012

Capturing the Mouse

Nancy Wake AC (b. 1912), one of the most decorated women of World War 2, earned the name the 'White Mouse' for her maddening ability to evade the Gestapo.

Dominique Issermann

Dominique Issermann (b. 1946), a fashion, advertising and portrait photographer known for her striking black and white images, was born in Paris and became interested in photography as a teenager.

1 portrait in the collection

Tony Bilson, c. 2005

George Fetting

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tony Bilson 2008

Lionel Murphy QC

Lionel Murphy QC (1922-1986), High Court judge and Labor politician, grew up in Sydney, studied science and law at Sydney University, was admitted to the Bar in 1947, and became a QC in 1960.

1 portrait in the collection

Barbara Blackman, 2008

Gorgi Dimcevski

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2009

Bruny d'Entrecasteaux, 1837

Antoine Maurin

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Betty Burstall, 1945

Arthur Boyd AC OBE

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2016

Purchased 1998

The hands have it

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

Walter Langhammer

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

1 portrait in the collection

Patrick White

Patrick White (1912–1990), acknowledged as Australia’s pre-eminent novelist of the 20th century, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973 for The Eye of the Storm, ‘for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature’.

7 portraits in the collection

Thomas Muir

Previous exhibition, 2005

Thomas Muir (1765-1799), lawyer, political activist and political convict, began studies at the University of Glasgow at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

Cecil Beaton

Portraits

Accomplished illustrator, painter, writer and diarist, set designer and one of the most distinguished photographers of the twentieth century, Cecil Beaton is renowned for his portraits of well known faces from the worlds of fashion, literature, and film.

Patrick White, Castle Hill, Sydney, 1963 (printed 2000)

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

Pat Cash

Pat Cash (b. 1965), professional tennis player, emerged as a potential top-ten player as a teenager, when he won the junior doubles at the French Open, the junior singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon, and the US Open junior singles – all within a few months of each other in 1982.

1 portrait in the collection

Mirka by Mirka, 2000

Mirka Mora

Portrait, soft ground etching on paper.

Purchased with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2021

Michael Kelly, 1998

Rick Amor

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Barbara Blackman AO

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2019

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

Eating the seasons

Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.

Sydney Cove medallion, 1789 by Josiah Wedgwood

The medallion

NPPP 2019 exhibition essay

In recent years I have become fascinated by the so-called Sydney Cove Medallion (1789), a work of art that bridges the 10,000-mile gap between the newly established penal settlement at Port Jackson and the beating heart of Enlightenment England.

Three ways to look at a photograph

Portrait, pastel and coloured pencil on paper

Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2019 Prize.

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

Hilda Rix Nicholas

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

Tetsuya Wakuda, 2004

Quentin Jones

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

The National Photographic Portrait Prize turns ten

It is now a little more than 178 years since the French Academy of Sciences was made aware of the invention of the daguerreotype process.

Georges Mora

Previous exhibition, 2007

Georges Mora (1913-1992) was born Gunter Morawski to a Leipzig Jewish bourgeois family of Polish descent.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait Paintings by Matthew Perceval

From 1967 until 1981 Matthew Perceval lived and painted in France and during those years produced a large body of portrait paintings.

Tony Bilson OAM

Tony Bilson, OAM (1944-2020), chef, grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Melbourne Grammar school before opening his first restaurant, La Pomme d'Or, in Camberwell in 1971.

1 portrait in the collection

Edmund Capon, 2011

Gary Grealy

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Gooseberry, widow of King Bungaree, 1836

William Fernyhough

Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Mysterious eyes

Previous exhibition, 2016

Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.

Dame Mabel Brookes, c. 1955

Sir William Dargie CBE

Gift of Rodney Davidson AO OBE 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Christopher Brennan

Chefs, winemakers, providores

Christopher Brennan (1870–1932), poet, was born to Irish parents in Sydney.

2 portraits in the collection

Masters of Fare

Previous exhibition, 2004

Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores celebrates men and women who have championed the unique culinary characteristics and produce of Australia, enriching our lives with new ideas and new flavours over the past forty years.

Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC

Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC (1924-2022), physiologist, was born in Launceston and graduated in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1947.

3 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Frank Lowy AC, 2014

Paul Newton

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2016
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Mirka Mora

Mirka Mora (1928–2018), French-born artist and restaurateur, narrowly escaped Auschwitz as a girl.

5 portraits in the collection

Jan Senbergs AM

Jan Senbergs AM (1939-2024) came to Australia from Latvia in 1950. He studied at the Melbourne School of Printing and Graphic Arts, where he was influenced by Leonard French.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Bock

Thomas Bock, artist, printmaker and photographer, is believed to have been born at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, in 1790.

3 portraits in the collection

Lady Ellen Stirling

Nicolas-Martin Petit after Barthélemy Roger

Lady Ellen Stirling (1807-1874) was the third daughter of James Mangles of Woodbridge in Surrey, a Director of the East India Company and later an MP.

1 portrait in the collection

Cour-rou-bari-gal, 1807

Portrait, engraving, hand coloured on paper

Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008

The World of Thea Proctor

Previous exhibition, 2005

The World of Thea Proctor is the Portrait Gallery's second major biographical exhibition - that is, the second exhibition to focus exclusively on the life and work of a single individual

Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Marquis de Vaudreuil, ca.1753-55

Canadian identities

Magazine article by Lilly Koltun, 2004

An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.

Winning in technicolor

Magazine article by Alistair McGhie, 2009

Alistair McGhie writes about the portraits of three of Australia's top professional cyclists: Cadel Evans, Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen painted by Matthys Gerber.

MacKenzie family silhouette, 1846

Samuel Metford

Portrait, brush and ink, pen and ink, stencil cut-out with watercolour highlights on paper

Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007

Jan Senbergs, 2015

Jacqueline Mitelman

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015

Jan Senbergs, 1976

Keith Looby

Portrait, oil on composition board

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

Portrait of Robert Klippel, 1980

Yvonne Audette AM

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Edmund Capon, c. 1986 (printed 2019)

Neil Duncan

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019

Mirka Mora, 2001

Greg Weight

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

A. Henry Fullwood

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

Rupert Bunny

Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864–1947) was one of the most celebrated Australian expatriate artists of his generation, achieving a degree of success in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s that was unmatched by his peers.

3 portraits in the collection

Wylie

Portrait, oil on paper laid on board

Wylie (c. 1824–unknown) is thought to have been born near King George’s Sound in south-west Western Australia, which would make him a Noongar man.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Georges Mora, 1956

Charles Blackman OBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Henry Fullwood (Uncle Remus), 1919

George Lambert

Portrait, pencil on paper

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

Dr Gene Sherman AM

Dr Gene Sherman AM (b. 1947) is Chairman and Executive Director of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, a family philanthropic enterprise dedicated to the public exhibition of significant contemporary art from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

3 portraits in the collection

Malcolm Williamson AO CBE

Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO CBE (1931–2003), composer, was born in Sydney, and was educated at Barker College, Hornsby, and then at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano and French horn as well as composition under Sir Eugene Goossens.

1 portrait in the collection

Arthur Phillip

Portrait, tempera on masonite

Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), first governor of New South Wales, began his career while a boy in London.

2 portraits in the collection

The chase, 1952

Charles Blackman OBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rob and Paula McLean 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

The Last Picture Show (Lewis Morley and Henry Talbot)

Reveries

Photography and mortality

Previous exhibition, 2007

Featuring works by Australian and New Zealand photographers from the late 1970s up to the present day Reveries focuses on images made in the presence of or consciousness of death.

Arthur Boyd Portraits

Previous exhibition, 1999

This is the first in a series of National Portrait Gallery exhibitions to survey the portraits painted by artists who are not thought of, primarily, as portrait painters

Self Portrait (Textanude) by Arlene TextaQueen

Animated

Self Portraits Online

Previous exhibition, 2008

Animated is the National Portrait Gallery's first online exhibition.

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney

Heads of the People

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

Previous exhibition, 2000

For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history

Rod Laver,

Ern McQuillan OAM

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003

Equation of a life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton

Equation of a life - a portrait of Professor Derek Denton, 2016

Evert Ploeg

Portrait, oil on linen

Commissioned with the assistance of funds provided by Janet Whiting AM, Philip Lukies and Antonia Syme 2016

Philip Williams

During 46 years as a journalist, Philip Williams (b. 1957) covered the world’s biggest news events.

1 portrait in the collection

George Mealmaker

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2006

George Mealmaker (1768–1808), convict and activist, became involved in radical politics in his native Dundee in the 1780s.

1 portrait in the collection

Ingres in Paris

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was one of the greatest portrait painters in history.

Louis XVI giving final instructions to the Comte de La Perouse, c. 1785

Sea legged frogs

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.

Wylie, 1840-1841

Robert Neill

Portrait, steel engraving with later hand-colouring on paper

Purchased 2018

About grace

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2020

Penelope Grist finds philanthropy and fashion underpin the story of Susan Wakil AO.

Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster, c. 1780

Jean Francois Rigaud

Self Portraits in Australia

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family, the Ian Potter Foundation and John Schaeffer AO 2009

To Look Within

Previous exhibition, 2004

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

Max Schubert

Portrait, pastel on paper

Max Schubert AM (1915–1994) was born in the Barossa Valley to German parents who were devoutly religious and spoke German at home.

1 portrait in the collection

Professor Derek Denton, 2009

Janet Dawson

Gift of Professor Derek Denton AC and Dame Margaret Scott AC 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c.

Lt. Genrl. the Rt Honble. Sir George Murray G.C.B., G.C.H. &c., 1838

John Cochran after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Previous exhibition, 2018

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Collection: Icons

Volume One

When a portrait communicates determination and individuality as boldly as these do, it has the potential to become an iconic image. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.

Edmund Capon AM OBE

Photographic Portraits from 19th Century Australia

Edmund Capon AM OBE (1940–2019), gallery director, commenced his museum career at a commercial gallery in London whilst a student at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

2 portraits in the collection

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa

Husbands and Wives

Previous exhibition, 2010

'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.

Louise, daughter of the Hon. L. L. Smith by Tom Roberts, 1888

An Australian in Paris

This week it is impossible not to contemplate the ways in which France has touched many Australian lives.

Frank Lowy AC

Magazine article by Emeritus Professor Jaynie Anderson AM, 2015

Sir Frank Lowy AC (b. 1930) businessman, property developer and philanthropist, founded the Westfield group of shopping centres.

2 portraits in the collection

Sitter still

Jaynie Anderson reflects on her experience as sitter for Reshid Bey’s 1962 portrait.

Australians in Hollywood

Previous exhibition, 2003

Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s

Mark Strizic

A Journey in Photography

Previous exhibition, 2004

This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.

Icons

Parliament House

Touring exhibition, 2019

Mrs Cameron and the V&A

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2003

In March 2003 Magda Keaney travelled to London to join the photography section of the Victoria & Albert Museum for three months.

Masters of Fare

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

The exhibition Masters of Fare: Chefs, Winemaking, Providores celebrates those who have championed the unique culinary characteristics and produce of Australia.

Marion Borgelt

Previous exhibition, 2005

Marion Borgelt (b. 1954) grew up on a farm in the Wimmera district in western Victoria and attained her Diploma in Fine Art, majoring in painting, from the South Australian School of Art in 1976.

1 portrait in the collection

Clifton Pugh

Australians

This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.

Ian Roberts (after Coypel 1709), 2003

Ross Watson

Portrait, oil on composition board

Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Super League

Magazine article by David Sequeira, 2004

The portrait of Ian Roberts by Ross Watson.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

Previous exhibition, 2023

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Being Cate

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2009

A moving portrait of Cate Blanchett unfolds as an inspired pairing of medium and subject.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020

Previous exhibition, 2020

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist

Madame Sibly, Phrenologist and Mesmerist, c. 1870

James E. Bray

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite photograph

Purchased 2017

Arthur T. Woodward

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite

Arthur Thomas 'A T' Woodward (1865–1943), painter and art scholar, was born in Birmingham, England.

1 portrait in the collection

The Tichborne Claimant (Arthur Orton), c. 1872

Maull & Co Photographers

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

C.H.T. Costantini

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

Charles Henry Theodore Costantini (also Constantine, Constantini and Costantine) was a Paris-born surgeon of Italian descent who was twice transported to the Australian colonies in the 1820s.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Blondin, 1874

Timothy Noble

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Australian of the Year

Inspiring a Nation

Previous exhibition, 2010

The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Uncommon Australians

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Previous exhibition, 2015

This exhibition showcases portraits acquired through the generosity of the National Portrait Gallery’s Founding Patrons, L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC.

Exhibition opening speech

Leo Schofield introduces the exhibition, Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores.

Robert Kermode, c. 1840

Henry Mundy

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Martha Kermode, c. 1840

Henry Mundy

Purchased 2008. The original frame for this work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery of Australia by the National Gallery of Victoria 2009.

Edward Riou

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

Edward Riou (1762-1801), naval officer, began his career with the Royal Navy at the age of twelve.

2 portraits in the collection

Sideshow Alley

Previous exhibition, 2015

Death masks, post-mortem drawings and other spooky and disquieting portraits... Come and see how portraits of infamous Australians were used in the 19th century.

Equation of a life – a portrait of Derek Denton

9 September 2016

Archived media releases 2016

The National Portrait Gallery, has welcomed the newest portrait commission of Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC by Evert Ploeg.

Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian endeavouring to escape in the boats

Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian endeavouring to escape in the boats, 1790

Robert Dodd

Portrait, aquatint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Portrait of Captain Edward Riou, 1801

James Heath after Samuel Shelley

Portrait, stipple engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Girl with Cigarette, c. 1925 by Agnes Goodsir

Agnes enigma

Magazine article by Karen Quinlan AM, 2019

Karen Quinlan considers the case of Agnes Goodsir, whose low profile in Australia belies her overseas acclaim.

Vanity fair

Magazine article by Ashleigh Wadman, 2012

Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.

Queen Victoria, 1901

The Illustrated London News after Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Happy New Year

Magazine article by Cayce Zavaglia, 2017

This year (in March) we will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the formal establishment of the National Portrait Gallery. In the life of institutions, twenty years is not a long time.

Thread bare

US artist Cayce Zavaglia reveals human duality in her striking embroidered portraiture.

Sarah Bernhardt, 1876 by Georges Clairin

Demimonde liaisons

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2017

Jane Raffan feasts on modernity’s entrée in the Belle Époque theatre of the demimonde.

Vintage Cassab

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

The oil portrait of Sir Frank Packer KBE by Judy Cassab was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.

NPPP 2012 exhibition essay

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Joanna Gilmour, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2012 Prize.

Portrait of Lady Eyre Williams (Jessie Gibbon)

Chance encounter

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.

You, looking at me

Magazine article by Elspeth Pitt, 2022

Elspeth Pitt chats with Archibald Prize-winning artist Yvette Coppersmith about performance, coincidences and the intersection of art and life.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, 1885-86 by
John Singer Sargent

A feast of friends

Magazine article by Richard Ormond, 2015

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

Marilyn Ball, Albatross, 2018 (detail) by Linde Ivimey

So Fine

17 May 2018

Archived media releases 2018

The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce its winter exhibition is So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history. It will open to the public from 29 June 2018.

Seeing stars

Celebrating Science Week

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2018

It has been suggested that Sir Thomas Brisbane’s interest in the New South Wales governorship was as attributable to his passion for astronomy as to the desirability of the position as a prestigious career move.

A guy from Paris

Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.

Painters' paradise

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2007

Andrew Sayers feels the warmth in the paintings Matthew Perceval made while the sun shone in southern France.

Portrait of the artist as a young man

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the early life and career of John Brack.

Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1887 by William Strutt

Strutt your stuff

Magazine article by Matthew Jones, 2016

Matthew Jones on the upshot of a St Kilda Road outrage.

So Fine

28 June 2018

Archived media releases 2018

Ten women artists explore the possibilities of portraiture as a contemporary art form; and reinterpret and reimagine Australian history in the Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history.

Facing Facts

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

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

All dressed up

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?

Portrait of Private Edward Lello 1915 by Darge Photographic Company

Final frame

Magazine article by Karl James, 2016

Karl James reflects on soldier portraiture during the Great War.

The Window Seat, 1907 by Frances Hodgkins

Kiwi magpie

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2018

Penelope Grist finds inspiration in pioneering New Zealand artist, Frances Hodgkins.

Group photograph taken at the coronation of King George VI including Queen Elizabeth II, Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Queen Mother, 12 May 1937 by Hay Wrightson

Poise and Carats

I keep going back to Cartier: The Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia next door, and, within the exhibition, to Princess Marie Louise’s diamond, pearl and sapphire Indian tiara (1923), surely one of the most superb head ornaments ever conceived.

Past, present, future, 2002 by Wang Qingsong
M+ Sigg Collection

Chinese Art

Magazine article by Tedi Bills, 2016

A short overview of modern Chinese art from 1949 to the present.

It's a Mora!

Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.

Tejal Shah

by Gitanjali Dang

Artist essays

Born in 1979, Tejal Shah grew up in Chhattisgarh, central India, moving to Bombay in 1995.

Self-portrait with guardian spirits, 2009-2010 Kate Beynon

Kate Beynon’s transcultural life and art

Learning resource archive

Phoebe Lupton profiles artist Kate Beynon, whose contemplative self portrait features in Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize.

NPPP 2012 learning resource

Exploring select works from the NPPP 2012. For secondary students.

Lyndall Hobbs and Marilyn at the Come as your favourite blonde party, Blitz Club, London, 1979 Robert Rosen

Shiny, happy people

Magazine article by Glynis Jones, 2022

Glynis Jones on the Powerhouse’s retrospective of one of Australia’s foremost fashion reportage and social photographers.

The life of Bryant

Magazine article by Tenille Hands, 2018

Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.

Women make history

Magazine article by Jennifer Higgie, 2022

Jennifer Higgie uncovers the intriguing stories behind portraits of women by women in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.

Mary (or Diana) Croker, mat woman, Colchester, 1823 by John Dempsey

Unknown drawer

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

To the end of the earth

Magazine article by Celina Fox, 2006

The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.

Portrait of an English Woman c. 1532-5 (detail)

A new perspective

An exhibition devoted to Hans Holbein's English commissions shows the portraitist bringing across the Channel new technical developments in art - with a dazzling facility.

Emmanuel at bedtime, 2011 by George Mifsud

To startle the eye

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2012

National Photographic Portrait Prize judge Joanna Gilmour previews the 2012 exhibition.

In a good paddock

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2011

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

dumb & dumber from The Imponderable Archive, 2013 Samuel Hodge

Everything, everyqueer, all at once

Magazine article by Bradley Vincent, 2022

Bradley Vincent considers Samuel Hodge’s use of the archive to create a queer vernacular of portraiture.

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.

Wicked but Virtuous

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.

Expect the unexpected

Joanna Gilmour revels in accidental artist Charles Rodius’ nineteenth century renderings of Indigenous peoples.

Of jumpers and river gums, red

Magazine article by Diana O'Neil, 2016

Diana O’Neil on Noel Counihan’s vivid 1971 portrait of Alan Marshall.

Reveries

Magazine article by Helen Ennis, 2007

The exhibition Reveries: Photography and mortality is a powerful display which brings together images that depict the last phase of people's lives.

Venetia, Lady Digby, circa 1633-1634 by Sir Anthony van Dyck

Love in the extreme

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2020

Joanna Gilmour reveals love’s more intense manifestations in the tale of Lord Kenelm and Venetia Digby.

Sibly irresistible

Magazine article by Alexandra Roginski, 2019

Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.

Brooke Lockett, Heidi Martin, Karen Nanasca, Halaina Hills; New York, 2012 Lisa Tomasetti

Dance like everyone’s watching

Magazine article by Aimee Board, 2019

Penelope Grist’s spirits soar with Lisa Tomasetti’s Dancers in the Streets series.

A spectral sentience

Aimee Board reveals method, motivation and mortality in the portraiture of Rod McNicol.

Melbourne experience

Magazine article by Diana Warnes, 2007

Diana Warnes explores the lives of Hal and Katherine 'Kate' Hattam through their portraits painted by Fred Williams and Clifton Pugh.

Themes and variations (Annelies) A13, 1946

Listening to form

Magazine article by Jane Kinsman, 2007

National Gallery of Australia curator Jane Kinsman discusses the portraiture of Henri Matisse.

Virginia Woolf, 1902 George Charles Beresford

Love my way

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2022

Inga Walton delves into the bohemian group of artists and writers who used each other as muses and transformed British culture.

Installation of ‘Face to Face: The New Normal’ at Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, 2021 Vic McEwan

Facing the feeling

Penelope Grist explores the interplay between medicine and portraiture in Vic McEwan’s Face to Face: The New Normal.

The National Portrait Gallery's 20th birthday party

The National Portrait Gallery's 20th Anniversary

Last month we marked the twentieth anniversary of the formal establishment of the National Portrait Gallery, the tenth of the opening of our signature building, and the fifth of our having become a statutory authority under Commonwealth legislation.

The fat of the land

Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.

Nikhil Chopra

by Rattanamol Johal

Artist essays

Nikhil Chopra was born in 1974, in Calcutta. His first degree was in commerce, but in 1997 he took up fine art studies, eventually gaining a Masters in Fine Art from Ohio State University, United States.

The eye and the heart

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2011

Nici Cumpston immerses herself in the collective vision of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020.

Staffordshire bull terrier belonging to the Rev. John Gower, 1851

Essential portraiture

Michael Desmond in conversation with University of Houston professor of philosophy Cynthia Freeland.

Alternative virtue

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.

South-bound and down

Joanna Gilmour recounts the story of ill-fated sea voyages in the early stages of the Antipodean colony.

Head, hand, heart

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2007

An extensive selection of portraits by John Brack were on display at the National Portrait Gallery in late 2007.

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.

The play’s the thing

Magazine article by Andrew Mayo, 2020

Penelope Grist charts an immersive path through Stuart Spence’s photography.

Fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon, Iceland, 2015 Josh Hutchins

Fisheye

Andrew Mayo explores the portrait piscatorial, with help from two of its most creative practitioners.

An evening at Yarra Cottage, Port Stephens

Maria Caroline Brownrigg

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2007

At first glance, this small watercolour group portrait of her two sons and four daughters by Maria Caroline Brownrigg (d. 1880) may seem prosaic, even hesitant

Money and swat

Andrew Sayers discusses the real cost of George Lambert's Self portrait with gladioli 1922.

An Australian story

Magazine article by The Hon. Dr Kevin Rudd, 2009

In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.

The Multifarious Career of George Selth Coppin

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.

Fine and dandy

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.

Lovers of light

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2008

Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.

Jim Cobb at Chroma factory Mt Kuring-gai, NSW, 2017 by Mark Mohell

The alchemist’s profile

Magazine article by John Zubrzycki, 2017

John Zubrzycki meets Australian paint pioneer Jim Cobb.

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.

Off grid

Magazine article by Aimee Board, 2019

Aimee Board ventures within and beyond to consider two remarkable new Gallery acquisitions.

Profile of a marriage

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the lives of Sir George Grey and his wife Eliza, the subjects of a pair of wax medallions in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Mexico from the Palace painted by ‘Maximilian Emperor'

Empirical art

Magazine article by Krysia Kitch, 2017

Several years ago I came across this curious painting on the racks in a distant, dusty corner of the store room in the basement of the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. Since then the mystery surrounding it has never been far from my mind.

Albert Jonas and John Xiniwe of The African Choir, 1891 London Stereoscopic Co.

Back in black

Krysia Kitch reviews black chronicles at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Fits of delicacy and despair

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.

Icons and imagery

Magazine article by Alison Weir, 2011

Alison Weir explores the National Portrait Gallery, London and the BP Portrait Award to find what makes a good painted portrait - past and present.

Australia’s great internationalists

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

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

Heartfelt

The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

Magazine article by Sharon Peoples, 2017

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

Unbuttoning uniforms

Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.

In good company

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Jean Appleton’s 1965 self portrait makes a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection writes Joanna Gilmour.

You beauty

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

Home truths

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Despite once expressing a limited interest in the self portrait, the idea of it has figured strongly in much of Tracey Moffatt's work and has done so in some of her most distinctive and compelling images.

Naked ambition

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Joanna Gilmour dives into the life of Australian swimming legend Annette Kellerman.

First-Class Marksman, 1946 by Sidney Nolan

Money for Myth

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2015

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

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.

The Dissecting Room

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.

Starry knight

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

Lucy Culliton

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.

Asiel Timor Dei, ca. 1728 by a master of Calamarca

The Viceroyalty of New Spain

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

European painters always enjoyed a good deal of latitude in the representation of angels, those asexual, bodiless, celestial regiments of God, so long as they were young and beautiful.

Flash mob

Sarah Engledow trains her exacting lens on the nine photographs from 20/20.

Love City; George Gittoes on hilltop 2013

Man of war

Magazine article by Tedi Bills, 2016

Tedi Bills talks to George Gittoes about canvassing conflict.

Mugshots

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

Lady Jane Grey, c.1590-1600 (also known as The ‘Streatham’ portrait) Artist unknown

The Royal she

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2019

Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.

Portrait of a Pioneer , 1917
Violet Teague

Off her own bat

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.

Portfolio of 54 portraits compiled by Queen Victoria, 1859–1861 by John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Camille Silvy, Frances Day and William Bambridge

Queen of cartes

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.

Omai, Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, 1775-76

First encounters

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

Secure the shadow ere the substance fade

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2017

The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.

Through thick and thin

Sarah Engledow likes the manifold mediums of Nicholas Harding’s portraiture.

Cachasunghia, Osage Warrior 1804–06 by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

Political profiles

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.

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

The Thyssen Art Macabre

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.

Thrown together

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.

Painting writing

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Sunset in the drawing room at Chesney Wold by Hablot Knight Brown

Portraiture in a Bleak House

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.

Material culture

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

Helen Blaxland judging flower arrangements, c. 1940s photographer unknown

Petal to the mettle

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.

Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits

Exhibition essay

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

Christmas Island