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

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

Search / l reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Biography

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

Henry Reynolds

Biography

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

Frederick George Reynolds was born in London, the son of a watercolourist, Frederick G Reynolds senior, who was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy.

1 portrait in the collection

Henry Reynolds, 2012

Dave Tacon

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

H.B.G Larkin, 1928

L E. Reynolds

Portrait, pen and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Joseph Banks Esq, 1774

William Dickinson after Sir Joshua Reynolds

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Purchased 2008

Portrait of Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1770

an unknown artist after Sir Joshua Reynolds

Portrait, oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018

Robert Henderson Croll, 1927

Frederick George Reynolds

Portrait, oil on canvas on board

Gift of Grietje Croll in memory of her late husband Robert Devereaux Croll and with the endorsement of his daughter Helen Croll 2013. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

John Hawkesworth LLD, c. 1850 (originally 1776)

James Watson after Sir Joshua Reynolds

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Sir Benjamin West

Biography

Benjamin West (1738-1820), an American painter, arrived in England in 1763 after a Grand Tour in Italy and soon won acclaim.

1 portrait in the collection

William Ridley

Biography

William Ridley, stipple engraver, worked as an illustrator for a variety of magazines.

5 portraits in the collection

John Lucas

Biography

John Lucas started his career as an apprentice to the engraver Samuel William Reynolds.

1 portrait in the collection

William Dickinson

Biography

William Dickinson (1746-1823) was a London-born draughtsman, engraver and print publisher.

1 portrait in the collection

George Romney

Biography

George Romney, painter, was born and trained in the north of England until 1762, when moved to London, where he exhibited at the Society of Arts and later at the Free Society and the Society of Artists.

2 portraits in the collection

William Owen

Biography

William Owen moved to London from his native Shropshire in 1786 and was apprenticed for seven years to the coach-painter Charles Catton.

1 portrait in the collection

John Raphael Smith

Biography

John Raphael Smith worked in various drapery establishments and painted miniatures before turning to engraving in London.

1 portrait in the collection

The Barassi

Moustaches

Otherwise known as the ‘Pool Cleaner’ or the ‘Porn Star’ moustache.

The Right Honourable Viscount Keppel, Admiral of the White Squadron

Augustus Keppel

Biography

Augustus Keppel (1725–1786), naval officer, joined the navy at the age of ten and had risen to the rank of commander by the time he was nineteen.

1 portrait in the collection

Samuel Shelley

Biography

Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools as a seventeen year-old in 1774 and exhibited at the Academy regularly from this time until 1804.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir William Beechey

Biography

Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1 portrait in the collection

George Garrard

Biography

George Garrard ARA, born in London, trained under the animal painter Sawrey Gilpin and enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools at the end of 1778.

1 portrait in the collection

James Heath

Biography

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

2 portraits in the collection

Valentine Green

Biography

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

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Phillips

Biography

Thomas Phillips was born in Dudley, Warwickshire and initially trained as a glass painter before moving to London, aged 20, with a letter of introduction to the painter Benjamin West.

6 portraits in the collection

Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

John Downman

Image

Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1788

John Raphael Smith after Sir Benjamin West

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Purchased 2010

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society

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

N Schiavonetti after Thomas Phillips

Portrait, line engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir Joseph Banks, 1802

William Ridley

Portrait, engraving on paper

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

Arthur Phillip Esq., Captain General and Commander in Chief in & over the territory of New South Wales

Arthur Phillip Esq., Captain General and Commander in Chief in & over the territory of New South Wales, 1789

W Sherwin after Francis Wheatley

Portrait, engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Biography

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was one of the leading portrait painters of the Georgian era.

8 portraits in the collection

The great South Sea caterpillar transformed into a Bath Butterfly (Sir Joseph Banks)

The Bath Butterfly

About Face article

The caricaturist and engraver James Gillray's biting satires about Sir Joseph Banks.

Johann Zoffany

Biography

Johann Zoffany, painter of portraits and conversation pieces, grew up in the court of the Prince von Thurn und Taxis in Germany, where his father was employed.

1 portrait in the collection

Omai

Biography

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

Bathing woman, Bridlington, c.1825 by John Dempsey

Allow me to introduce...

General content

These full-length figures in watercolour, gouache and pencil date mostly from the 1820s, and almost all come from the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.

Karl Robert, Count Nesselrode, 1818 by Sir Thomas Lawrence

The Lawrence lustre

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2019

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Rennie Ellis

Aussies All

Previous exhibition, 2006

Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.

The news from Washington

Magazine article by Lauretta Morton, 2006

Australia's former Cultural Attache to the USA, Ron Ramsey, describes the mood at the opening week of the revitalised American National Portrait Gallery.

Catholic clergymen from the Diocese of Adelaide

Catholic clergymen from the Diocese of Adelaide, c. 1862

Stephen Edward Nixon

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

Purchased 2018

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

Anne Sanders writes about the exhibitions Victoria & Albert: Art & Love on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the retrospective of Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

William Shakespeare, c. 1600-1610 associated with John Taylor

Take thy face hence

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.

In a good paddock

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2011

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

Capturing Cook

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2003

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.

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

A reflection on conversation pieces

About Face article

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

The fat of the land

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

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

Mary, Queen of Scots by unknown artist, National Portrait Gallery of London

Portrait dendrochronology

About Face article

Angus's latest Trumbology is accompanied by the following caveat: 'This one is reeeeeeally geeky.'

Portrait of a Pioneer , 1917
Violet Teague

Off her own bat

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

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

Aussies all

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2006

The exhibition Aussies all features the ecclectic portrait photography of Rennie Ellis which captures Australian life during the 70s and 80s.

Thrown together

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

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

In the galleries

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2009

Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.

Icons and imagery

Magazine article by Alison Weir, 2011

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

Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children, 1940

The incomparable Beaton

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

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).

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

Unknown drawer

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

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

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

First encounters

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

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

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

Political profiles

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2016

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

The shipwright's arms

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.

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

Portraiture in a Bleak House

About Face article

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.

58 results

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Search / l reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Henry Reynolds

Self portrait

Sir Joseph Banks, Bt

Frederick George Reynolds

Henry Reynolds, 2012

H.B.G Larkin, 1928

Joseph Banks Esq, 1774

Portrait of Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1770

Robert Henderson Croll, 1927

John Hawkesworth LLD, c. 1850 (originally 1776)

Sir Benjamin West

William Ridley

John Lucas

William Dickinson

George Romney

William Owen

John Raphael Smith

The Barassi

Augustus Keppel

Samuel Shelley

Sir William Beechey

George Garrard

James Heath

Valentine Green

Thomas Phillips

Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1788

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

Sir Joseph Banks, 1802

Arthur Phillip Esq., Captain General and Commander in Chief in & over the territory of New South Wales, 1789

Sir Thomas Lawrence

The Bath Butterfly

Johann Zoffany

Omai

Allow me to introduce...

The Lawrence lustre

Rennie Ellis

The news from Washington

Catholic clergymen from the Diocese of Adelaide, c. 1862

Around the grounds

Take thy face hence

In a good paddock

Capturing Cook

A reflection on conversation pieces

The fat of the land

Portrait dendrochronology

Off her own bat

Aussies all

Thrown together

In the galleries

Icons and imagery

The incomparable Beaton

Unknown drawer

First encounters

Political profiles

The shipwright's arms

Portraiture in a Bleak House