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James Gleeson AO was Australia's best-known surrealist artist, and from the late 1930s onwards he was a tireless supporter of Australian modern art.
3 portraits in the collection
Recorded 1962
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ray Wilson OAM in memory of James Agapitos OAM 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Purchased 2022
James Wilson (1760–1840), naval officer, was the commander of a ship called the Duff, which in 1797 brought a group of missionaries from the London Missionary Society to Tahiti.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir James Martin (1820-1886) was fourth Chief Justice of New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
James Oswald Fairfax AC (1933-2017) was the eldest son of Sir Warwick Fairfax.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir James McNeill CBE (1916-1987) was chairman of BHP from 1977 to 1984.
1 portrait in the collection
James Goodall Francis (1819–1884), a London-born merchant and politician, arrived in Hobart as a steerage passenger in February 1835.
1 portrait in the collection
Clive James AM (1939-2019), writer, broadcaster and critic, grew up in Sydney, attending Hurstville Opportunity School, Sydney Tech.
1 portrait in the collection
James Morrison (b. 1962), known internationally as a jazz recording artist, composer and flamboyant virtuoso performer, started to play the cornet at the age of seven.
1 portrait in the collection
James Gillray, caricaturist and printmaker, was born in Chelsea and learned the art of engraving as a youth in London.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir James Fergusson (1832–1907), governor, was educated at Rugby School and was still a student there when he succeeded his father as Baronet of Kilkerran in 1849.
1 portrait in the collection
James Tylor (b. 1986) is an Australian multi-disciplinary contemporary visual artist.
1 portrait in the collection
James Buller (1812-1884), Wesleyan missionary, emigrated to Australia in 1835 from Helston, Cornwall, hoping to join a mission in the South Seas.
1 portrait in the collection
James Scobie (1860-1940), horse trainer, was born at Ararat, Victoria, and at age 20 he rode his first metropolitan jumping winner at Ballarat.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir James Hardy OBE (1932-2023) was a wine industry executive, yachtsman and community leader.
1 portrait in the collection
James Moore (1834-1904) was an undistinguished scholar before he left Ireland for Melbourne in 1862.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Irish-born James Horan (b. 1976) is an editorial and advertising photographer whose many clients include banks, hotel chains, medical supply companies, museums and charities such as The Salvos and The Smith Family.
1 portrait in the collection
James T Donovan (1861–1922), journalist, Catholic historian and amateur singer, was born into an Irish Catholic family in Sydney and grew up in Womerah Avenue, Darlinghurst.
1 portrait in the collection
James Moorhouse (1826-1915), Anglican bishop, had an exceptionally distinguished career and publication record before he came from England to Melbourne to succeed Charles Perry.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir James Balderstone (1921-2014) was chairman of BHP from 1984 to 1989.
1 portrait in the collection
James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.
2 portraits in the collection
James Raymond (c. 1786–1851), the first postmaster-general in New South Wales, came to Sydney in 1826, his fortunes having declined in Ireland, where he was said to have been a landowner and magistrate.
1 portrait in the collection
James Mollison AO (1931–2020) was the inaugural director of the National Gallery of Australia.
2 portraits in the collection
James Angus, born in Perth, Western Australia, has consistently explored the complexities inherent in traditions of Western sculpture.
1 portrait in the collection
James George Beaney (1828–1891), doctor and philanthropist, completed an apprenticeship to a surgeon in his home town of Canterbury, Kent, before leaving to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir James Dowling (1787-1844), judge, worked as a parliamentary reporter before he was called to the Bar in London in May 1815.
1 portrait in the collection
Scoring first prize in New South Wales for Art in the 1983 HSC was a signal that a talented creative career lay ahead and this has indeed proven the case.
2 portraits in the collection
Jim McClelland (1915-1999) was a lawyer, politician (senator for NSW 1971-1978), judge and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald (1986).
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds donated by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Tara James shares the joy of dance and its power to connect in the National Portrait Gallery’s touring exhibition Dancer.
Karl James reflects on soldier portraiture during the Great War.
James Reading Fairfax (1834 -1919) was the second of John Fairfax's sons to join him in business.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2005
Purchased 2015
James King (c. 1750-1784), naval officer, was born in Lancashire and educated at Clitheroe Grammar School before entering the navy in 1762.
1 portrait in the collection
James Cassius Williamson (1845-1913), actor and theatrical entrepreneur, worked and performed in theatres in his native USA before coming to Victoria under contract to George Selth Coppin in 1874.
1 portrait in the collection
Major James Semple Lisle (1759-1799) was a confidence trickster. Convicted of theft, he was sentenced to transportation and embarked on the Lady Shore for Botany Bay in 1797.
1 portrait in the collection
James Cook (1728-1779), maritime explorer, surveyed and claimed the east coast of Australia on the first of his three great voyages of discovery in the Pacific.
12 portraits in the collection
Sir James McCulloch KCMG (1819–1893) served four separate terms as premier of Victoria between 1863 and 1877.
1 portrait in the collection
James Alipius Goold (1812-1886), first Catholic bishop and archbishop of Melbourne, volunteered for service in New South Wales having studied in Rome and Perugia.
2 portraits in the collection
James Robert M. Robertson (1844-1932), mining engineer and coal magnate, was the son of a Scottish surgeon and colliery owner, and qualified in medicine himself before opting for a career in mining.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Lempriere came to Tasmania in 1822, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Tara James speaks to Cam Neville about his portrait series, Firefighters.
Purchased 2019
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the descendants of James Robert Millar Robertson 2011
Purchased 1999. Courtesy of the Corrigan family and Stuart Purves.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of James Mollison AO 2004
Gift of James Mollison AO 2004
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Lydia Raymond Day 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Mercy Health and Aged Care 2006
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gillian Appleton (McClelland) 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2024
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Gift of the artist 2019
Purchased 2022
This article examines the portraits gifted to the National Portrait Gallery by Fairfax Holdings in 2003.
Gift of Pat Lesslie (née Langley), in memory of George Langley and Rob Lesslie 2015
Gift of Douglas Stewart Fine Books 2013
James Angus discusses his major sculpture commission Geo Face Distributor with Christopher Chapman.
Purchased 2017
Tara James chats with award-winning artist Tamara Dean about portraiture prizes, the environment and the strength of women.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Madeleine Howell 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Gift of Alcoa World Alumina Australia 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased by the Commonwealth Government with the generous assistance of Robert Oatley AO and John Schaeffer AO 2000
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Commissioned with funds provided by the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Gift of the family of Aimée Viola Horsley, daughter of J.C. Williamson 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Take a close look at a portrait with a hidden message in its hands. For Year 7 – 9 students.
An exploration of the role of artists such as John Webber who, whilst a member of Cook’s crew over many voyages, created paintings and drawings of the situations and people the explorers encountered.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Betty Churcher describes the creation of the portrait of Captain James Cook in the National Portrait Gallery.
The caricaturist and engraver James Gillray's biting satires about Sir Joseph Banks.
Blue Mountain, Owner, Trainer, Jockey, James Scobie 1887 by Frederick Woodhouse Snr. is a portrait of James Scobie, well known jockey and eminent horse trainer.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Gift of John Colin Monash Bennett 2007. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Robert Oatley's continuing benefaction has helped the National Portrait Gallery acquire works that add another layer to the story of Captain Cook.
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2012
In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.
Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Gift of Sally Douglas 2024
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Leslie Moran investigates the portraits of judges in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
Gift of the Mort family 2009
Purchased 2024
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010
Purchased 2015
Well, James is my partner's son-in-law, and I've known him for quite a long time.
Harry Hudson (1907-1974) was a Melbourne-based painter. His work was included in a number of group exhibitions at the Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Carlton in the 1980s along with those of such notable artists as Roland Wakelin, Grace Cossington-Smith and James Gleeson.
1 portrait in the collection
Bruce Pollard (b. 1936), gallerist, established the Pinocotheca Gallery in a St Kilda mansion in 1967, and relocated it to an old hat factory in Richmond in 1970.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Rex Dupain 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Eric Thake (1904-1982), printmaker, painter and photographer, trained at the National Gallery School and the George Bell School and showed with the Contemporary Group in Melbourne between 1932 and 1938 before serving as an official war artist in the RAAF.
7 portraits in the collection
Gift of Professor Van Sommers 2011
Gift of Professor Van Sommers 2011
Gift of Professor Van Sommers 2011
Gift of Professor Van Sommers 2011
Gift of Professor Peter Van Sommers 2011
Gift of Professor Peter Van Sommers 2011
Gift of Professor Peter Van Sommers 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
The Art Handlers' Award for 2019 went to A Calm So Deep, 2018 by Elizabeth Looker.
The Art Handlers' Award for 2020 went to Gemma Baxter (right view), 2019 by Shea Kirk.
The Art Handlers' Award for 2021 went to Kristina Kraskov for I'm just a suburban fashionista.
Finalist, iD2012
With James Holloway, former Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Sir Warwick Oswald Fairfax (1901-1987), grandson of Sarah and James Fairfax, was the only son of Sir James Fairfax, who had become a partner in the company in the 1880s.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Mr and Mrs James Bain 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of James Mollison AO 2007
William McLellan (1831–1906), miner and parliamentarian, served on the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1859 to 1877, and again between 1883 and 1897.
1 portrait in the collection
Jessie Whyte (née Walker, 1779–1864). Born in Berwickshire, Scotland, Jessie married George Whyte (d.
1 portrait in the collection
This issue features the new National Portrait Gallery building, James Cook and John Banks, Cate Blanchett, Irina Baranova, Annette Kellerman, Shepard Fairey and more.
This issue features Australian cricketers, surfing legend Isabel Letham, Christos Tsiolkas, Bob Brown's portrait by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton, James Angus, virtual portraits and more.
Tara James, Exhibitions Coordinator at the National Portrait Gallery interviews Finalists from the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Theresa Shepheard Mort (née Laidley, 1820-1869), colonial spouse, was one of eight children of civil servant James Laidley and his wife Eliza Jane (née Shepheard).
2 portraits in the collection
What does 'portraiture mean at the end of the 20th century? At the outset of building a national portrait collection it seems an appropriate question to investigate.
You saucy minx
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
Join The Saturday Paper’s chief political correspondent, Karen Middleton, for A Month of Saturdays – afternoon conversations bringing current affairs experts to the Gallery for engaging, real-time discussions about the topics that matter.
Elizabeth Fairfax (née Jesson, 1778–1861), colonial free settler, was born in Birmingham and around 1800 married William Fairfax, whose family had previously held estates in Barford, Warwickshire.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2003
Samuel Bellin, printmaker and engraver, trained in England under James Basire the Younger before travelling to Rome, where he honed his drafting skills and made the acquaintance of JMW Turner and other artists.
2 portraits in the collection
Adapted from A Tribute to William Dobell an exhibition presented by the Australian National University's Drill Hall Gallery in association with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, The National Gallery of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial. Dobell is of course, celebrated for his achievements in portraiture, winning the Archibald prize (1943, 1948 and 1959), the Wynne Prize (1948), and representing Australia at the 1954 Venice Biennale. Curator Mary Eagle concludes her essay in the catalogue of the exhibition thus, "Overall I see a dissonance in Dobell’s art and life
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
James Bartholomew (Bart) Cummings OAM (1927-2015) was Australia's most successful thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
1 portrait in the collection
Our most recent commission, the portrait of Maggie Beer by Del Kathryn Barton both combines a statuesque almost devotional likeness with a spell-binding and dream-like personalised symbology of the sitter.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Christopher Chapman takes a trip through the doors of perception, arriving at the junction of surrealism and psychoanalysis.
James McCabe provides proof that hanging wasn’t necessarily a fate reserved for the perpetrators of murder and other deeds of darkest hue.
Contemporary Australian Portraits is a cross section, a sampling, of some of the present-day directions in Australian portrait practice
James Freeman, who is credited with bringing the wet-plate photographic process to New South Wales, arrived in Sydney in 1854 to join his brother William, who had arrived the year before.
9 portraits in the collection
With contributions from Julia Gillard, Fiona Gruber, and Dr Karl James, the National Portrait Gallery’s 50th edition of Portrait has something for everyone.
William Kinghorne (1796-1878) came to the colonies from Scotland some time before 1824.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of HOTA (Home of the Arts), Gold Coast 2019 with the encouragement of Patrick Corrigan AM
Charles Warman Roberts married Annie Edensor Marsden (1824-1895) in Sydney in June 1845.
1 portrait in the collection
Director Karen Quinlan AM announces the winner at the National Portrait Gallery.
Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922), signing his work 'Spy', was the most famous of the stable of caricaturists, including Sir Max Beerbohm and Carlo Pellegrini, who worked for the weekly English magazine Vanity Fair from 1869 to 1914.
31 portraits in the collection
Omai (Mai) (c. 1750-1778), the first Polynesian to visit Britain, was a young man of middling social standing who volunteered to sail from Huahine to England with Captain Furneaux on the Adventure (the ship accompanying James Cook's Resolution on Cook's second voyage of discovery (1772-1775).
2 portraits in the collection
Walter Bowring, born and educated in Auckland, contributed cartoons to the New Zealand observer and The weekly press, exhibited with the Canterbury Society of Arts and studied with Orpen and John in London, where he contributed to Punch, before arriving in Sydney in 1925.
3 portraits in the collection
Sir William (Will) Ashton OBE (1881-1963) was the son of James Ashton, who founded Adelaide's Norwood Art School in 1885 and its Academy of Arts in 1895.
1 portrait in the collection
Iconic Australian fashion designer, Akira Isogawa discusses the development of his unique style.
Robert Thomas Carter (1843–1917) was a leading Sydney cabinetmaker and furniture warehouseman, and later an antique dealer.
2 portraits in the collection
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and art of the Australian artist Janet Dawson.
An interview with Joel Pratley, Winner of the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Glenn Homann, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Julian Kingma, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Clare Lapworth, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Jarrod Vero, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Dion Georgopoulos, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Leith Alexander, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Glen Braithwaite, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Sandy Scheltema, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Jessica Hromas, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Tajette O'Halloran, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
An interview with Franky Tsang, Finalist in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Drawn from some of the many donations made to the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Portraits for Posterity pays homage both to the remarkable (and varied) group of Australians who are portrayed in the portraits and the generosity of the many donors who have presented them to the Gallery.
Tim Jarvis AM (b. 1966), environmental scientist, author and adventurer, was the Australian Geographic Society’s Adventurer of the Year in 2013 and its Conservationist of the Year in 2016 – the only person ever to have received both awards.
1 portrait in the collection
Antoine Maurin, lithographer, is little known. He was born in Perpignan, France, and died in Paris.
6 portraits in the collection
George Bell studied in Melbourne and Paris, and was elected a member of the Modern Society of Portrait Painters, London, in 1908.
1 portrait in the collection
An interview with Kristina Kraskov, Finalist and Art Handlers' Award winner in the Living Memory National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Elliott & Fry, a photography studio and photographic film manufacturer, was founded in 1863 at 55-56 Baker Street, London by Joseph John Elliott and Clarence Edmund Fry.
2 portraits in the collection
Dora Toovey, born in Bathurst, trained in Sydney under Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo, James R Jackson (whom she married) and John Passmore.
2 portraits in the collection
Robert Oatley talks about the repatriation of the John Webber portrait of Captain James Cook.
Purchased 2001
Lieutenant John Watts (1755-1801) joined the Navy in 1770 and embarked with James Cook in 1776 on the fatal voyage of the Resolution.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family, the Ian Potter Foundation and John Schaeffer AO 2009
Daniel Solander (1733-1782), naturalist, was a student of Carl Linnaeus, the Swede who devised and systemised the classification of plants and animals used today.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Clive Shakespeare formed the soul/Tamla Motown cover group the Downtown Roll Band in 1968.
3 portraits in the collection
Sarah Reading (1808-1875) came to Sydney from England in 1838 with her husband, John Fairfax (1805-1877), who had left school at the age of twelve and been apprenticed to a printer and bookseller.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir James and Lady Cruthers 2001
Michael Meszaros has worked full-time as a sculptor for thirty years.
5 portraits in the collection
Johnstone, O’Shannessy & Co was founded in Melbourne in 1864 by Henry James Johnstone and a photographer known as ‘Miss O’Shaughnessy’, who had previously been in partnership with her mother in their own photographic business in Carlton.
12 portraits in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2014
James Herbert 'Herb' Elliott AC MBE (b. 1938), runner, won the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the Rome Olympics in 1960.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by the Ian Potter Foundation 2008
Sir Arvi Parbo AC (1926-2019) succeeded James Forrest as chairman of Alcoa of Australia in 1978.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), acknowledged as one of the world's great portraitists, was master of portraits in the 'Grand Manner', replete with moral and heroic symbolism.
3 portraits in the collection
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
Intimate Portraits is an exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints that explore the less public side of portraiture
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Art by Warwick Baker, Chris Burden, Larry Clark, Rozalind Drummond, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Collier Schorr explores personal relations, individual expression and fluid identity.
Achilles Simonetti (1838-1900) was a sculptor. Born in Rome, the son of sculptor Louis Simonetti, he trained as a religious sculptor.
1 portrait in the collection
John Schank (1740–1823), naval officer, joined the Royal Navy at age 17, having served in the merchant service as a boy.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir George Young (1732–1810), naval officer, first went to sea at the age of fourteen and saw action in Europe and India before joining the East India Company’s marine in 1753.
1 portrait in the collection
When John Webber R.A. (c. 1752-1793), the son of a Swiss sculptor, living in London, submitted his work to the Royal Academy Schools, one of the first to admire his paintings was Dr Daniel Solander, the Swedish naturalist who had accompanied Cook and Banks on the first voyage.
5 portraits in the collection
When John Webber R.A. (c. 1752-1793), the son of a Swiss sculptor, living in London, submitted his work to the Royal Academy Schools, one of the first to admire his paintings was Dr Daniel Solander, the Swedish naturalist who had accompanied Cook and Banks on the first voyage.
1 portrait in the collection
Henry Reynolds (b. 1938), historian, studied at the University of Tasmania before taking up a lectureship at Townsville University College (later James Cook University) in 1965.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002
Harold James Phillip 'Tiga' Bayles (1953–2016), a Birri Gubba Gungalu man, was a broadcaster and Aboriginal rights activist.
1 portrait in the collection
George Baird Shaw (1812-1883), painter and printmaker, arrived in Australia in 1856.
2 portraits in the collection
In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.
Dr Christopher Chapman, curator of Inner Worlds: Portraits & Psychology looks at Albert Tucker's Heidelberg military hospital portraits.
Purchased 2015
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
George Billett (also Bellett, Bellette and Billet, 1812–1885) was a farmer and landowner, an early settler of Sorell in Tasmania, and the son of two ex-convicts.
1 portrait in the collection
AD Hope OBE (1907-2000), poet, literary critic and academic, was educated at Sydney University before winning a scholarship to Oxford.
2 portraits in the collection
The sixth in the National Portrait Gallery’s series of student exhibitions, will feature 200 portrait artworks, both two and three-dimensional, from secondary school students from across Australia
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of Dr J J C Bradfield 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Paul Partos (1943-2002) came to Australia with his family in 1949, spending six months in a Perth orphanage before being reunited with his parents for their move to Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Raelene Sharp (b. 1957), artist, was born in Melbourne and began her career as a graphic artist in advertising.
2 portraits in the collection
This exhibition focuses on exploring national and communal identity through sculptural production in Australia, from the early decades of settlement through to the present day
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Thoms family 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Gift of Alcoa World Alumina Australia 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Judith O’Conal grew up in Sydney’s Rocks area and became interested in art as she repeatedly passed the plaque advertising the Julian Ashton School.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Reg, Lesley, Glen and Paul Thoms 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Lewis Miller (b. 1959), artist, won the Archibald Prize in 1998 with one of his many portraits of fellow artist Allan Mitelman, and has been a finalist seventeen times.
4 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2013
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010
Purchased with funds provided by Barbara and Jim Higgins 2010
Purchased 2013
The second instalment of a display featuring bold contemporary portraits drawn from the collection. For the Gallery’s 20th birthday this display brings together a group contemporary photographic portraits of inspiring women and men.
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB MD FRS (1817-1911), botanist, explorer and medical doctor, visited Australia as a member of James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition of 1839 to 1843.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879) photographer, artist and Anglican clergyman, arrived in Hobart in 1843 to take up the role of Bishop of Tasmania.
2 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2009
Charles Warman Roberts (1821–1894), publican, was born in Sydney, the eldest son of free settler parents who emigrated to Australia in 1821.
1 portrait in the collection
James Holloway describes the first portraits you encounter when entering the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
John Darling (1923-2015), businessman, company director and media producer was the son of Harold Gordon Darling, chair of BHP.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Bess Norriss Tait (1879-1939), artist, was born in Melbourne and studied under Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School between 1897 and 1901.
1 portrait in the collection
Douglas Kirkland, photographer, was born in Canada and started his career on small newspapers there.
1 portrait in the collection
Desperately seeking Woolner medallions
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
George Billett (also Bellett, Bellette and Billet, 1812–1885) was a farmer and landowner, an early settler of Sorell in Tasmania, and the son of two ex-convicts.
1 portrait in the collection
George Rrurrambu Burarrwanga (1957–2007) was a Yolngu singer, activist and a founding member of the Warumpi Band.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Commissioned with funds provided by Hayley Baillie and James Baillie 2023
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Bonita Mabo AO (c. 1943–2018), South Sea Islander reconciliation activist, was the widow of Torres Strait Islander land claimant Eddie Mabo.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2013
Sir George Fisher CMG (1903-2007), mining industry executive, began work at the Zinc Corporation at Broken Hill in 1925 after having completed a mining engineering degree in Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2015
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.
Peter Weiss AO (1935–2020), cultural benefactor, was born into a well-to-do family in Vienna, which they fled in the late 1930s.
1 portrait in the collection
Palassis (Vlase, Vlazio or Vlasio) Zanalis (1902–1973) arrived in Western Australia as a twelve-year-old, accompanied by an uncle, from the Greek island of Kastellorizo in 1914.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Betty Churcher AO (1931–2015), gallery director, author, painter and lecturer, was educated in Brisbane before studying art in London.
Lady Hay, née Chalmers (c. 1806-1892) was reported at the time of her death to have been about ten years older than Hay.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
The winner of our Art Handlers' Award receives $1000 and free return transport for their photograph, courtesy of International Art Services.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and James Bryans 2015. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Edward 'Ned' Trickett (1851- 916), sculler and hotelier, was the best sculler in New South Wales by 1875.
1 portrait in the collection
In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.
Walter Preston, engraver and convict, came to New South Wales aboard the Guildford in 1812.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery will, next Tuesday, unveil an exciting new acquisition of irrefutable importance to all Australians. Portrait of William Bligh, in master’s uniform c. 1776, attributed to John Webber, is one of the earliest portraits of the contentious, historical figure, and extends the Gallery’s remarkable collection of early colonial portraits.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.
Nelson Illingworth trained in sculpture in England and worked as a modeller at the Royal Doulton potteries for nine years before moving to Australia.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Ross family in memory of Noel and Enid Eliot 2014
The first index I created was for my first book, and, to my astonishment, that was almost twenty-five years ago.
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.
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.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley AC MBE (b. 1951), Wiradjuri tennis champion, was the number one women's tennis player in the world in 1971 and 1976.
3 portraits in the collection
Nicholas Paspaley Jnr AC (b. 1948) is chair of the Paspaley Group of Companies, with interests in pearling, aviation, retail, pastoral holdings and commercial properties in Australia and internationally.
2 portraits in the collection
Harold Parker (1873-1962), sculptor, came to Brisbane with his English parents as a three-year old.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Thomas Joseph Carr (1839–1917) was the second Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, the successor to James Alipius Goold.
2 portraits in the collection
Margaret Fink AO (b. 1933), film producer, was a key figure in the renaissance of Australian cinema in the 1970s.
2 portraits in the collection
The Huxleys, National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces, Jennifer Higgie on portraits of women by women, Tamara Dean, Bangarra, Glynis Jones on fashion photographers, and NPG/NGV collaboration.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of The Australian Industry Group 2012
Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2021
It is not well known that the person who composed the famous theme music for the BBC's Doctor Who series was Australian Ron Grainer.
Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018
Joe Byrne (1857-1880), born to Irish Catholic parents like the others in Ned Kelly’s ‘gang’, showed promise at school but left as a twelve year old, after his father died.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir John Hay (1816-1892), pastoralist and politician, graduated in law in his native Scotland before emigrating to New South Wales with his new wife, Mary, in 1838.
1 portrait in the collection
(Elizabeth) Betty Churcher AO (1931–2015), gallery director, author, painter and lecturer, was educated in Brisbane before studying at the Royal College of Art in London.
3 portraits in the collection
Explore the beauty and symbolism of flowers in this weird and wonderful floral extravaganza that showcases more than 50 portraits from the collection, new acquisitions and selected loans.
Lina Bryans OAM (1909-2000), artist, was born into a prosperous Melbourne family and grew up moving freely between Toorak and Europe.
3 portraits in the collection
The 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.
Though initially developed by physicians, phrenology was taken up by certain non-medical practitioners who applied the theory to social questions such as education and criminal reform.
Ryan Presley about portraiture, Emma Kindred on the career of Joan Ross, Ellie Buttrose looks at Archie Moore’s kith and kin, and Joanna Gilmour steps into the world of Julie Rrap.
Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), hydrographer and writer, began work with the East India Company in Madras in 1752.
1 portrait in the collection
Robert Oatley AO (1928–2016), businessman, was one of Australia’s most successful wine industry figures.
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sally Hardy 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
John Bradfield (1867-1943), engineer, was a key figure in the development of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and inner city transport network.
1 portrait in the collection
Originally conceived as an anthropological record, Percy Leason’s powerful 1934 portraits of Victorian Aboriginal people are today considered to be a highlight of 20th century Australian portraiture
The National Portrait Gallery is excited to announce that Perth photographer Elizabeth Looker has won the Art Handlers’ Award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.
George Hurrell, born in Kentucky, began his working life studying painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Magazines are the portrait galleries of the 90s... Glossy is about magazines. The exhibition presents the work of eight photographers, Australian by birth or long-term residency, who are producing portraits for publication in magazines around the world.
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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.
Want to read and hear about a portrait without having to lean in?
Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
Purchased 2018
In February 2003 the National Portrait Gallery Circle of Friends brought Sir Robert Strong to Australia to present a series of lectures entitled The Artists & The Banquet- A History of Dining, which focused on the links between gardens and table decoration from the Renaissance to the Victorian Era.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Primrose Potter 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
The ‘first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America’ was in fact the second Australian cricket side to contest matches internationally (a team of Indigenous players having done so in 1868), but it is considered the first official national representative team to tour overseas.
1 portrait in the collection
Noel Fraser Hickey (1921–2010) was born in Kensington, in Sydney, New South Wales, a stone's throw from the Royal Randwick Racecourse.
1 portrait in the collection
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
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.
Margel Hinder AM (née Harris) (1906-1995), sculptor, trained in Buffalo and Boston in the 1920s.
1 portrait in the collection
Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s
The National Portrait Gallery welcomes Angus Trumble
Sir Edward Wheewall Holden (1885-1947), industrialist and politician, was the son of Henry Holden, industrialist and civic leader, and the grandson of James Alexander Holden, Adelaide leather and saddlery business owner.
1 portrait in the collection
Barrister and philanthropist Malcolm James McCusker AC CVO KC was born in Subiaco, Western Australia in 1938.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Elizabeth Cosson AM CSC (b.1958) enlisted in the Australian Army in 1979 and was the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Major General in the Australian Army in 2007.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery mourns the loss of one our most generous benefactors, Robert Oatley AO.
Liverpool-born William Buelow Gould (1803-1853) had worked as a draftsman for the London printmaker, Rudolph Ackermann, and as a painter for a Staffordshire pottery before being transported to Van Diemen’s Land for theft in 1827.
1 portrait in the collection
This week it is impossible not to contemplate the ways in which France has touched many Australian lives.
David Unaipon (1872-1967) writer, public speaker and inventor, was a Ngarrindjeri man, fourth of nine children of the evangelist James Ngunaitponi and his wife Nymbulda, both of whom were Yaraldi speakers.
1 portrait in the collection
James Richard Vickery OBE (1902-1997), food scientist, saw the field of his life’s research grow from non-existence to world recognition.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
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.
Nicholas Harding: 28 portraits features paintings of Robert Drewe, John Bell and Hugo Weaving alongside gorgeously coloured recent oil portraits, delicate gouaches and bold ink and charcoal drawings.
This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.
The inaugural winner of the $10,000 iD Digital Portraiture Award was announced this morning at the National Portrait Gallery.
Rock’s raw potency made it the ideal medium for fomenting protest. The 1970s, 80s and onwards saw calls for social and environmental justice ring out through song.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013
Angus delves into the biographies of two ambitious characters; Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir John Pope-Hennessy.
Elizabeth Roberts (1812–1833) was the daughter of Warwickshire-born William Roberts (1754–1819) and his wife, Jane (née Longhurst, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2013
The exhibition will include works of art from the NPG Canberra's permanent collection with some inward loans and aims to highlight the achievements of notable Australians.
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.
Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the CSIRO Agriculture and Food Division 2017
Polly Borland's photograph of The Queen was commissioned by Buckingham Palace as part of a series of high profile celebrations to mark the Golden Jubilee.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
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.
To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.
Purchased 2010
The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.
It was definitely a candid encounter as was the expression on the face. It was constructed insofar as the image was deliberately taken from a distance so as to minimize intrusion and to magnify the effect of the image.
Edward Hammond Hargraves (1816–1891), adventurer and speculator, claimed credit for the discovery of payable goldfields in New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Chandler Phillip Coventry AM (1924–1999), grazier, gallerist, art collector and arts patron, was born in Armidale, New South Wales to an established New England grazing family.
1 portrait in the collection
The portrait of Ian Roberts by Ross Watson.
The National Portrait Gallery would like to congratulate the forty finalists for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Andrew Sayers discusses the portrait of Dr Joan Croll AO by the Australian artist John Brack.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
David Hansen’s tribute to his close friend, prince of words and former National Portrait Gallery director, the late Angus Trumble.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of James Semple Kerr 2004
Press releases and images downloads for media.
Patrick Corrigan AM (b. 1932), businessman, art collector and arts patron, was born in Hanghow (Hankou) in China.
3 portraits in the collection
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers celebrates the support given to the Gallery by Gordon and Marilyn Darling.
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
The life of William Bligh offers up a handful of the most remarkable episodes in the history of Britain’s eighteenth and early nineteenth-century maritime empire.
Christopher Chapman looks at influences and insight in the formative years of Arthur Boyd.
In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.
Arnold Shore, a lifelong inhabitant of Melbourne, was apprenticed to a stained glass and leadlight company called Brooks, Robinson soon after leaving school at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
A reflection on the National Portrait Gallery's first four years.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Christopher Chapman examines the battle of glamour vs. grunge which played out in the fashion and advertising of the 1990s.
Edward Riou (1762-1801), naval officer, began his career with the Royal Navy at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
Mary Anne Egan (also Marianne or Marian, née Cheers, 1818–1857), was born in Sydney, the daughter of ex-convicts.
1 portrait in the collection
Just after 10.00 o'clock on 3 December 1879, four prisoners were brought from their cells at Darlinghurst Gaol and placed in the dock of a courtroom heaving with agitated spectators
When did notions of very fine and very like become separate qualities of a portrait? And what happens to 'very like' in the age of photographic portraiture?
Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018
Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.
I had been watching Agnes with intrigue, her face and profile were so mesmerizing. On our final day together I pulled her aside and convinced her that she had such an amazing face that I needed to get a photograph for myself. It was very spontaneous in that I decided quickly how it would best look and shot it in only two frames.
Purchased 2017
Robert James Lee (Bob) Hawke (1929-2019) moved with his family from South Australia to Perth in 1939.
9 portraits in the collection
An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.
Angus Trumble ponders the many faces of William Bligh.
In April 2006 the National Portrait Gallery showcased Australian portraits at the Fredenksborg Castle in Denmark.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
A brief introduction to the Weird, Wired World of Internet Portraiture.
Bess Norriss Tait created miniature watercolour portraits full of character and life.
Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.
The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.
Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.
An extract from the 2004 Nuala O'Flaaherty Memorial Lecture at the Queen Victoria Musuem and Art Gallery in Launceston in which Andrew Sayers reflects on the unique qualities of a portrait gallery.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Krysia Kitch reviews black chronicles at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Dr Sarah Engledow delves into the life of union leader Pat Mackie who is depicted in a portrait by Nancy Borlase AM.
Directors of the National Portrait Gallery from 1998 to today.
Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.
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.
Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.
Last Sunday I had the privilege of appearing at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in conversation with Julia Baird. The subject of our session was Julia’s recent biography, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.
Anne Sanders finds connections in Inner Worlds between Hungarian expatriates and the development of psychoanalysis in Australia.
In 2022 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Mayatjara by Robert Fielding, a series of 24 photographs of Elders of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara community.
The southern winter has arrived. For people in the northern hemisphere (the majority of humanity) the idea of snow and ice, freezing mist and fog in June, potentially continuing through to August and beyond, encapsulates the topsy-turvidom of our southern continent.
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.
Peter Jeffrey trips the hound nostalgic.
Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.
The life and achievements of Sir Edward Holden, who is represented in the portrait collection by a bust created by Leslie Bowles.
Joanna Gilmore delights in the affecting drawings of Mathew Lynn.
Bruce Petty's animated self portrait captures a life's journey compressed into a few minutes.
Andrew Sayers describes the unique characteristics of the international band of portrait galleries.
The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.
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.
Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Dr Christopher Chapman explores how we can understand Richard Avedon's photographs.
Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.
Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.
Former National Portrait Gallery Curator Magda Keaney was a member of the selection panel of the Schwepes Photographic Portrait Prize 2004 at the National Portrait Gallery London.
Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.
Traversing paint and pixels, Inga Walton examines portraits of select women in Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.
Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.
Joanna Gilmour explores the 1790 portrait of William Bligh by Robert Dodd.
The Board oversees the Gallery's strategic directions, objectives and governance.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.
All that fall: Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War exhibition co-curators Dr Anne Sanders and Dr Christopher Chapman reflect on the evolution of the Gallery’s Anzac Centenary exhibition.
Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.
Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.
A National Portrait Gallery, London exhibition redefines portraiture, shifting the focus towards a new perspective on Pop Art.
Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.
How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
National Photographic Portrait Prize curator, Sarah Engledow, finds reward in a difficult task and ultimately uncovers the essence of portraiture.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.
Projecting the splendour of the empire, and the resolve of its subjects, the bust of William Birdwood keeps a stiff upper lip in the National Portrait Gallery.
Michael Desmond introduces some of the ideas behind the exhibition Present Tense: An imagined grammar of portraiture in the digital age.
Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.
Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.
Andrew Mayo considers the changing face of modern wedding photography through the eyes of two of its finest exponents, Dan O’Day and Kelly Tunney.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.
Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.
At just 7.8 x 6.2 cm, the daguerreotype of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa is one of the smallest works in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.
George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.
Chairman Sid Myer AM, Hayley Baillie, Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, Patrick Corrigan AM, Marilyn Darling AC, Tim Fairfax AC, Sam Meers AO, John Liangis, Dr Helen Nugent AC and Nigel Satterley AM.
Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.
Robyn Sweaney's quiet Violet obsession.
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.
Penny Grist on motivation, method and melancholy in the portraiture of Darren McDonald.
A focus on Indigenous-European relationships underpins Facing New Worlds. By Kate Fullagar.
Johanna McMahon revels in history and mystery in pursuit of a suite of unknown portrait subjects.
Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?
NPPP judge Robert Cook provides irreverent insight into this year’s fare, and having to be a bit judgemental.
Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.
Karen Vickery on Chang the Chinese giant in Australia.
Sarah Engledow picks some favourites from a decade of the National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.
Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.
Christopher Chapman absorbs the gentle touch of Don Bachardy’s portraiture.
Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.
Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
Dr Sarah Engledow discusses the recent gift of works by David Campbell.
To accompany the exhibition Cecil Beaton: Portraits, held at the NPG in 2005, this article is drawn from Hugo Vickers's authorised biography, Cecil Beaton (1985).
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Rebecca Harkins-Cross considers Carol Jerrems’ portraiture against the backdrop of social change in the 1970s.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
Emma Kindred examines fashion as a representation of self and social ritual in 19th-century portraiture.
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.
Some years ago my colleague Andrea Wolk Rager and I spent several days in the darkened basement of a Rothschild Bank, inspecting every one of the nearly 700 autochromes created immediately before World War I by the youthful Lionel de Rothschild.
Aimee Board reveals method, motivation and mortality in the portraiture of Rod McNicol.
A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.
How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
Dr. Sarah Engledow discovers the amazing life of Ms. Hilda Spong, little remembered star of the stage, who was captured in a portrait by Tom Roberts.
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.
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.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.
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.
Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.
The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.
Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.
Angus' initial perception of Uluru shifts, as he comes to see it as central to the entire order of Anangu life.
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.
Inner Worlds evokes a broad view of psychology as a discipline. However, the specific interests of the practitioners whose portraits are included in the exhibition incorporate specialist areas including psychoanalysis.
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.
Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.