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June Orford has collaborated with Francis Reiss on a number of projects.
5 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of June Orford 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Gift of Francis Reiss 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
June Mendoza AO OBE (1924–2024) was born into a musical family in Melbourne and started sketching portraits while touring with her mother, a composer and pianist.
1 portrait in the collection
June Oscar AO lauds three iconic Aboriginal figures in the Portrait Gallery collection who have inspired and influenced her.
June Dally-Watkins OAM (1927–2020), model, deportment icon and entrepreneur, grew up on a property at Watsons Creek in the New England district of New South Wales.
3 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Tuckwell 2018
Purchased with funds provided by the Annual Appeal 2023
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
The National Portrait Gallery’s National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 will close Monday 8 June 2015, this is the last week to visit the exhibition in Canberra and vote for your favourite portrait in the People’s Choice.
It is with deep regret, but great pride, that the National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the decision of its Deputy Chairman to resign from the Gallery’s Board, to focus on a new international role as co-Chair of the Tate Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee.
Paul Kelly & The Portraits presents a multifaceted image of the performer over the course of his career.
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.
Digital media artist, George Khut, is creating a spectacular form of digital portraiture involving public participants.
The votes are in and the National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce The Honourable Bob Hawke savouring a strawberry milkshake by Harold David is the people’s choice for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018.
Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Australian photographer Rod McNicol has consistently analysed the passing of time through the evidence of the photographic portrait. At once confronting and tender, McNicol’s portrait photographs are bold and intimate.
This issue features Vanity Fair, Nancy Bird Walton, William Barak, Sidney Kidman, Benjamin Duterrau's portraits of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania, and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Robert Hannaford, Walter Lindrum, John Brack, judicial portraits, Vincent Lingiari and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features portraits by Rick Amor, colonial charicatures, Les Murray, Peter Porter, Helen Garner and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features articles on Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, George Lambert's self-portrait, Professor Peter Doherty, the man behind the Dr. Who theme, and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Peter Brew-Bevan, daguerreotypes, the exhibition Depth of Field, Ern McQuillan's photographs of sportspeople and more.
This issue features Cindy Sherman, Tim Storrier, Brett Whiteley and Patrick White, contemporary Chinese portraiture, Charles Blackman and more.
This issue features convict portraitists, Janet Dawson, Paul Grabowsky, Nam Le, the Present Tense exhibition and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Harold Cazneaux, nineteenth-century carte de visites, Tim Winton, Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo, Evelyn Chapman and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Dame Nellie Melba and Frances Alda, Leigh Bowery, Karin Catt, Sidney Nolan and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine focusses on the importance of philanthropy for 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.
The votes have been counted, and the winners of the National Portrait Gallery’s People’s Choice Awards for the Prize exhibitions are...
The Portrait Gallery is calling for contributions to support in the acquisition of superb portraits for the national collection.
The National Portrait Gallery is thrilled to announce that the People’s Choice award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize goes to Natalie Grono from Byron Bay for her photograph Feather and the Goddess Pool 2014.
A rare and enchanting collection of 52 portraits of British street people will be on display for the first time in the National Portrait Gallery’s winter show, Dempsey’s People: a folio of British street portraits 1824-1844.
Brenda L Croft (Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples) talks with Ngambri/Ngunnawal/Wiradjuri elder, Dr Matilda House, about her photographic portrait.
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2019
CommBank Matildas players Clare Hunt, Clare Wheeler, Courtney Nevin and Teagan Micah joined National Portrait Gallery Director Bree Pickering today to announce a major new video portrait of all 23 players from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ Final Squad.
Gift of the artist 2013
Julia Gillard AC (b. 1961) was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia from June 2010 to June 2013.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery will close its doors from Tuesday 23 April 2019, but the public are still able to experience the home of portraiture during the four-month closure.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of June Lahm 2015
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
This year, the National Portrait Gallery has the unique opportunity to acquire Atong Atem’s photograph Men in this town 04 through the 2025 Annual Appeal. Support the Gallery by making a gift online before 30 June.
Purchased 2015
Brothers in harms
In accordance with the Australian Public Service Commission’s Guidance for Agency Heads on Gifts and Benefits, the National Portrait Gallery will maintain a register of gifts and benefits accepted by its Director and publicly disclose any that are over $100 in value.
The immediate chain of events that led to the outbreak of the First World War began 100 years ago on June 28.
Edward 'Ned' Trickett (1851- 916), sculler and hotelier, was the best sculler in New South Wales by 1875.
1 portrait in the collection
The remuneration of the Principal Executive Officer (Band B) is set in accordance with the Determination of the Remuneration Tribunal.
Charles Warman Roberts married Annie Edensor Marsden (1824-1895) in Sydney in June 1845.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870) was a poet and horseman. Well-educated, from a relatively well-to-do family, he learned to ride as a boy in England and secured a position in the South Australian Mounted Police in 1852.
1 portrait in the collection
Bidgee Bidgee (c. 1787–c. 1837), a leader of the Burramattagal clan of the Dharug people, joined a number of sealing and whaling voyages to Bass Strait in the early 1800s, and acted as a tracker to an 1816 expedition aimed at quelling attacks against settlers in west and north-west Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Martha Knox (née Rutledge, d. 1903), was the sister of merchant, landowner and banker William Rutledge.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Purchased 2017
Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche (1871–1936), actor, director and producer, was one of Australia’s most successful theatre exports.
2 portraits in the collection
Dalton's Royal Photographic Gallery was one of the names for the studio run by Edwin Dalton from 1858 until the mid 1860s.
2 portraits in the collection
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.
Purchased 2012
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (1844–1900) was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria.
4 portraits in the collection
Hera Roberts (1892-1969) was a painter, illustrator, designer, commercial artist and milliner.
1 portrait in the collection
Shane Dye (b. 1966), jockey, was born in Matamata, New Zealand, and served his apprenticeship in New Zealand before coming to Australia in 1985.
2 portraits in the collection
Troy Cassar-Daley was born in Grafton, NSW. He first visited Australia's Country Music Festival at Tamworth as an 11-year-old boy, and was so captivated by the experience that he returned to the Festival a year later as a busker.
1 portrait in the collection
Edmund Edgar (1804–1854), engraver and portrait painter, was convicted of robbery in London in 1825 and sentenced to transportation for life.
1 portrait in the collection
The discovery of Dempsey's People, Australian rugby greats, Athol Shmith's progressive pictures, and powerful Indigenous portraits.
Purchased 2002
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.
Sylvia Bremer (also Breamer) (1897–1943), actor, was born in Double Bay, Sydney, in June 1897 into a British-Australian naval family.
2 portraits in the collection
Jacob Nash (born 1982) is a Daly River artist and designer and was Head of Design at Bangarra Dance Theatre between 2010 and 2023, working on over 20 productions.
2 portraits in the collection
Gift of Rex Dupain 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Adela Russell Walker (1847–1932), the youngest of her parents' thirteen children, was born in Longford and was 22 when she married George Coleridge Nixon, who was the son of Francis Russell Nixon – an amateur artist and Anglican Bishop of Tasmania from 1843 to 1862.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729–1808), statesman, was educated at Oxford and entered parliament in 1761.
1 portrait in the collection
William John Wills (1834-1861) came to Victoria with his brother in early 1853.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
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
Aileen Dent (1890–1979), painter, is the most-exhibited woman artist in the Archibald Prize, with 63 works hung between 1921 and 1962.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles is my wingman
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2013
Gift of Eleanor Thornton 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2020
Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818-1866), actor, was a seasoned theatre performer by his early teens; at fourteen, he played Richard III.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2005
Henry (Harry) Donnan (1864-1956) notched up a total of 94 first class cricket matches between 1887 and 1901.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles John Cerutty CMG (1870-1941), public servant, began his career at the age of eighteen as a clerk in the Victorian Department of the Treasurer.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2017
George Bonnor (1855–1912), cricketer, made his debut for Australia in the first official Test match between Australia and England, held at The Oval in September 1880.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Steve Hart (1859–1880), a member of the 'Kelly gang', lived his whole short life in the country around Wangaratta.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2014
John Thomas Lang (1876–1975) served two terms as premier of New South Wales in the 1920s and 1930s.
5 portraits in the collection
Betty Burstall AM (1926–2013) played a vital role in the development of theatre in Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 1999
Nick Seymour (b. 1958), bass guitarist, grew up playing music with his brother and sisters.
2 portraits in the collection
Bob Barnard AM (1933-2022), jazz cornettist, grew up in a Melbourne musical family and started on cornet with a local brass band at the age of 12.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2013
Domesticity’s creative maelstrom
Ben Chifley was Australia’s 16th Prime Minister. A railway engine driver in his home town of Bathurst, New South Wales, Ben Chifley became one of the most highly regarded of Australia’s Prime Ministers.
2 portraits in the collection
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
Hon Joh Bjelke-Petersen KCMG, longest-serving Premier of Queensland from 1968 until 1987 was born in New Zealand in 1911.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Pearce (c. 1860-1909) was an apprentice on the English merchant vessel the Loch Ard, which embarked for Victoria in March 1878 carrying 37 crew and 16 passengers, many from the Carmichael family.
1 portrait in the collection
George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott (1866–1917) was the captain of the Australian cricket team which toured England and then to the USA and New Zealand from June to November 1896.
1 portrait in the collection
Pro Hart MBE (1928-2006) was born in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia in 1928.
2 portraits in the collection
Pride, protest, panache
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
Max Walker AM (1948–2016) was one of a small group of sportsmen to have played both senior VFL/AFL football and Test cricket.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of John McPhee 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Gift of the artist 2021
Purchased 2017
Gift of the artist 2021
Collection: National Portriat Gallery
Gift of the artist 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Purchased with the assistance of funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AC 2021
Sir James McCulloch KCMG (1819–1893) served four separate terms as premier of Victoria between 1863 and 1877.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Purchased 2003
Walter Preston, engraver and convict, came to New South Wales aboard the Guildford in 1812.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2021
Crowded House is a much-loved Australian-New Zealand rock band formed in Melbourne in 1985 by talented singer/songwriter Neil Finn OBE (b.
3 portraits in the collection
Ross Wilson (b. 1947), musician and producer, started playing in bands as a schoolboy, fronting the Pink Finks and the Party Machine in the late 1960s.
3 portraits in the collection
National Portrait Gallery Director Angus Trumble invites media to the announcement of the winner and exhibition preview for the 2015 National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010
Singer/songwriter and guitarist Neil Finn OBE (b. 1958) was born in Te Awamutu, Aotearoa New Zealand, a small town on the north island.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
As a tribute to Sir William Dargie's singular contribution to Australian art and cultural institutions, and on the occasion of his birthday, The Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery will mount exhibitions of his work between May and October
Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
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
Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.
Kay Cottee AO (b. 1954) became the first woman in history to complete a solo, non-stop and unassisted voyage around the world.
1 portrait in the collection
Waxworks were among the various types of entertainment venue to emerge in Australian cities in the mid-nineteenth century.
Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003
Henry Searle (1886–1889), a sculler known as the ‘Clarence River Comet’, took up rowing as a boy as a means of getting himself and his siblings to and from school.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Tim Bonyhady recalls his experience as sitter for his close friend and former National Portrait Gallery Director, the late Andrew Sayers.
What makes someone awesome? And how does a portrait tell a person's story? Bring your students up close and personal with some great Australians. For upper primary school students.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Dr Mandawuy Yunupingu (1956–2013), singer songwriter, was the lead singer of Australia's pre-eminent Aboriginal band, Yothu Yindi.
2 portraits in the collection
Jenny Howard née Daisy Blowes (1902-1996), stage performer, made her name in her native England as ‘the poor man’s Gracie Fields’, recording covers of Fields’s songs for a cut-price label and impersonating the star onstage.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015), who was instrumental in establishing the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.
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
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Clem Hill (1877–1945) was one of sixteen children and born into a notable Adelaide sporting family.
1 portrait in the collection
The Hon. Linda Jean Burney MP (b. 1957), a Wiradjuri woman, is the first First Nations person elected to the New South Wales parliament, and the first First Nations woman to serve in the federal House of Representatives.
2 portraits in the collection
‘The Australian Wonder’, Johnny Day (1856–1885), was an undefeated world-champion juvenile walker.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Francis Gardiner (Christie) (1830-c. 1903), bushranger, came to New South Wales with his family as a child.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer KBE (1906-1974), media proprietor, grew up in Sydney and became a cadet journalist on the Daily Guardian, owned by his father RC Packer, in 1923.
2 portraits in the collection
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
David Collins (1756–1810), lieutenant-governor, began his career in the British Navy, rising to the rank of captain before being returning to dry land and being placed on half-pay in late 1783.
1 portrait 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.
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
George Michael Prendergast (1854-1937), printer and premier, was born to an Irish goldminer and his wife and was apprenticed to the printer of the Pleasant Creek News in 1868.
1 portrait in the collection
Graeme Murphy AO (b. 1950), choreographer and dancer, was co-artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company with his wife Janet Vernon AM for three decades.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
William Clark Haines (1810-1866), first premier of Victoria, was educated at Charterhouse and Caius College Cambridge and practised as a surgeon in England before sailing to Victoria in 1842.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2017
In shock it fluctuates and with age, accelerates. Remembering the First World War and the Easter Rising.
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
David Lloyd Jones (1931–1961) was the great-grandson of the original David Jones – who founded the eponymous department store in Sydney in 1838 – and the eldest son of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (1878–1958), who was chairman of David Jones Ltd from 1920 until his death.
1 portrait in the collection
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
The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce Stephanie Simcox has received the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Art Handlers’ Award for her portrait titled Joey.
In Persuasion (1818), a long walk on a fine autumn day affords Anne Elliot an opportunity to ruminate wistfully and at great length upon declining happiness, youth and hope.
Mary Elizabeth Maud Chomley OBE (1872–1960) has been described as the 'divine angel of mercy' for Australian prisoners of war during the First World War.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2018
The National Photographic Portrait Prize is an annual event promoting the very best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers.
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
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.
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
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.
John Connell (c. 1759–1849), free settler, merchant and landowner, came to New South Wales aboard the Earl Cornwallis, which arrived in Sydney in June 1801.
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
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007
Hugh Jackman AC (b. 1968) is the ultimate triple threat – actor, singer and dancer.
1 portrait in the collection
The National Portrait Gallery is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Throughout her 70-year reign, Her Majesty represented graciousness, humanity and stability during times of enormous social change.
Purchased 2019
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.
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012
Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (1821-1897), governor, attended the Royal Military Academy before being commissioned to the Royal Engineers in 1839.
1 portrait in the collection
Tegan McAuley looks at the evolution of video portraiture.
Sir Oswald Brierly (1817–1894), marine painter and adventurer, studied art, naval architecture and navigation in England before his fascination with seafaring caused him to sign up as staff artist on the Wanderer – a schooner owned by entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd, who was about to embark on a round-the-world trip.
1 portrait in the collection
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
"Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey—Love has caught the strain, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey, Coo-ey—it whispers back again." The “Australian lady” who composed these fruity lyrics was none other than Desda— Jane Davies, sometime Messiter (née Price) of Leddicott, Lavender Bay.
Sir William Dargie, painter and eight times winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture, died in Melbourne on July 26, 2003, aged 91.
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
The National Portrait Gallery has officially launched a new digital interactive Gallery experience called Headhunt!, the first app of its kind being used in museums and galleries. Headhunt! is a tablet-based app for visitors aged 7-15 that encourages children to take the lead and independently explore the Gallery.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery Study Collection, Canberra
Gift of John Molony 2018
Purchased 2002
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2004
John Lort Stokes (1812–1885), explorer, naval officer and surveyor, joined the navy at age twelve and age thirteen was assigned to HMS Beagle as a midshipman.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.
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.
James McCabe provides proof that hanging wasn’t necessarily a fate reserved for the perpetrators of murder and other deeds of darkest hue.
Close contemporaries, Thea Proctor, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith were frequently sources of inspiration and irritation to each other.
The National Portrait Gallery this week launches an online exhibition of Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe to coincide with Reconciliation Week.
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.
Born 1965 in Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.
Presented by Sir Roy Strong and the late Dr Julia Trevelyan Oman in memory of their friendship with Gordon Darling and Marilyn Darling 2006
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
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.
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
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.
Marie Carandini (née Burgess, 1826–1894), aka 'Madame Carandini', was seven years old when her family arrived in Van Diemen's Land as assisted immigrants.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
The black and white portrait of an elderly woman with sidelong glance and irreverent, contemplative smile has taken out the people’s choice award in this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Purchased 2010
Millicent Fanny Preston Stanley (1883–1955), politician and feminist, was born Millicent Stanley in Sydney in 1883, the daughter of a grocer named Augustine Stanley and his wife Frances (née Preston).
1 portrait in the collection
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who subsequently became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
4 portraits in the collection
Those of you who are active in social media circles may be aware that through the past week I have unleashed a blitz on Facebook and Instagram in connection with our new winter exhibition Dempsey’s People: A Folio of British Street Portraits, 1824−1844.
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
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
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.
National Portrait Gallery Director Bree Pickering leads the executive team.
The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery's acquisition of the portrait of Edward John Eyre by pioneering English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Edward Riou (1762-1801), naval officer, began his career with the Royal Navy at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
3 portraits in the collection
George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.
4 portraits in the collection
Robert Brown (1773–1858) is considered ‘the father of Australian botany’.
2 portraits in the collection
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?
In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.
Dr Christopher Chapman explores the symbolism in the portrait commission of Marcia Langton by Brook Andrew.
Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.
Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2019 Prize.
After months of anticipation, the winner for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 has been announced with renowned Sydney portrait photographer Gary Grealy taking out the award. George Fetting, guest judge for the 2017 Prize, was entranced with the evocative nature of the winning portrait Richard Morecroft and Alison Mackay.
These terms and conditions govern entries to the National Portrait Gallery’s Darling Portrait Prize 2024.
The restrained and cultivated facial hair fashions evident through the first decades of the 1800s were on the wane by the middle of the century, when hirsute faces became mainstream.
Finalists have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Winner and Highly Commended for the National Photographic Portrait Prize since December. It is our pleasure to announce the Winner for 2018 is Lee Grant for her portrait titled Charlie and Highly Commended has been awarded to Filomena Rizzo for her portrait titled My Olivia.
In this major new exhibition marking the National Portrait Gallery’s third decade, 23 Australian artists and collectives have been invited to create portraits without constraints or boundaries.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
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.
Author and embroidery enthusiast Emma Batchelor shares her experience of joining a sewing circle with Portrait23: Identity artist Deborah Kelly.
Talma Studios opened in Sydney in March 1899 in a George Street premises next door to the GPO.
1 portrait in the collection
Magda Keaney on entwining the work of Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron, two photographers working a century apart.
Pieter Roelofs, Head of Painting and Sculpture at Rijksmuseum and co-curator of Vermeer, delves into the largest-ever exhibition of the master artist.
Joanna Gilmour explores the stories behind the ninteenth-century carte de visites of bushrangers Frank Gardiner and Fred Lowry.
Penelope Grist charts an immersive path through Stuart Spence’s photography.
Dr Sarah Engledow describes the achievements of internationally renowned burns and trauma surgeon Professor Fiona Wood.
Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.
Jo Bertini describes the evolution of her portrait of artists and friends Kitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapinni.
The oil portrait of Sir Frank Packer KBE by Judy Cassab was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.
Michael Desmond interviews Ralph Heimans about his portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.
Emma Batchelor uncovers the compelling contemporary dance made in response to the works in Shakespeare to Winehouse.
The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.
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.
Read the full requirements for entering the prize.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Christopher Chapman interviews photographer Nikki Toole about her bold and controlled portraits of skateboarders in the exhibition Skater.
Penelope Grist finds photographer Matt Nettheim re-visiting a formative and fulfilling career tram stop.
Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.
Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.
Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.
Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.
The exhibition California Video at the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles demonstrated how video artists expand the boundaries of portraiture.
Jane Raffan investigates auction sales of self portraits nationally and internationally.
Conditions of entry for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2015.
The story behind two colonial portraits; a lithograph of captain and convict John Knatchbull and newspaper illustration of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke.
Joanna Gilmour recounts the story of ill-fated sea voyages in the early stages of the Antipodean colony.
Polly Borland talks to Oliver Giles about the celebrity portraits that made her name and why she’s now making more abstract art.
Professor Stephen Fitzgerald, Australia’s first Ambassador to China, traces the historical course from sino-australian cultural engagement to a maturing Australian identity.
Rebecca Ray delves into Simone Arnol’s powerful photographic tribute to her great-grandmother
Aviation carried women’s roles in society to greater heights – fashion followed suit.
Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.
Alwin Reamillo was born in Manila, Philippines in 1964. He studied painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, and began his career as a visual art teacher at the Philippine High School for the Arts.
Anne Sanders finds connections in Inner Worlds between Hungarian expatriates and the development of psychoanalysis in Australia.
George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.
Nathan Faiman delves into the rich life story and legacy of Alan Goldberg.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Three tiny sketches of Dame Nellie Melba in the NPG collection were created by the artist who was to go on to paint the most imposing representation of the singer: Rupert Bunny.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
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.
Penny Grist on motivation, method and melancholy in the portraiture of Darren McDonald.
Claire Roberts interviews Swiss art collector Uli Sigg.
There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.
Penelope Grist finds inspiration in pioneering New Zealand artist, Frances Hodgkins.
Sean Davey captures the portrait of a nation renewed.
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.
Penelope Grist talks to photographer Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis about capturing moments, telling stories and keeping Culture strong.
Alison Weir explores the National Portrait Gallery, London and the BP Portrait Award to find what makes a good painted portrait - past and present.
Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
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.
Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.
Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.
Sarah Engledow previews the beguiling summer exhibition, Idle hours.
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.
Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
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.
Anna Culliton never had a colouring-in book when she was little. Her parents –Tony, a filmmaker, and Stephanie, a painter – wouldn’t let her have one. Instead, they insisted on her drawing her own pictures to colour-in.
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.
Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.
Dr Sarah Engledow puts four gifts to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection in context.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.
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.
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.
The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.