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Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), explorer, was an outstanding soldier, sailor and navigator who was gifted, too, in many intellectual spheres.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Antoine Maurin, lithographer, is little known. He was born in Perpignan, France, and died in Paris.
6 portraits in the collection
Antoine Fauchery (1823–1861) was a Parisian artist and writer, an occasional collaborator with Henri Murger, author of Scènes de la vie de bohème which was a chief source of the opera La bohème.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Purchased 2015
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Purchased 2014
Purchased 2014
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Louis Kahan (1905-2002) was born in Vienna, Austria to Jewish parents.
64 portraits in the collection
Louis Nowra (b. 1950), writer, grew up in dire family circumstances on a housing commission estate in Melbourne.
1 portrait in the collection
Recorded 1965
Gift of Dr Gene Sherman AM and Brian Sherman AM 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Lord Adrian Louis Hope was Governor Victoria at the Constitutional Convention, Sydney 1891.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, John Kaldor AO and Naomi Milgrom AO 2018
Herbert John Louis (Bert) Hinkler (1892-1933), aviator, worked with a photographer and in sugar mills before joining the Queensland Aero club and taking a correspondence course in mechanics.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Gift of the Estate of Louis Kahan 2024. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mary Thomson 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Rt Hon John Adrian Louis Hope KT GCMG GCVO PC, 7th Earl of Hopetoun (1860–1908) was the first governor general of Australia.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Alan Foulkes in memory of Mark Graham Cleghorn 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Aimee Board ventures within and beyond to consider two remarkable new Gallery acquisitions.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001
Purchased 2017
Purchased 1998
Purchased 2009
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AO, John Kaldor AO and Naomi Milgrom AO 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
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
Ralph Heimans on his portraits, and features on Louis Kahan, Helena Rubinstein, Judy Cassab and Tasmanian convicts.
François Bonneville was one of the leading French engravers of the period of the Revolution, selling his works at the Imprimérie du Cercle Social on the Rue du Théâtre-Francais until 1797, and then, until 1814, at successive premises on the Rue Saint Jacques.
2 portraits in the collection
Joseph Jauffret was master of appeals to the French council of state from 1814 to 1836 and was created a count in 1823.
1 portrait in the collection
Geoffrey Mainwaring (1912-2000) studied at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts before spending eight years teaching art at Thebarton Technical School.
1 portrait in the collection
French artist Jean Baptiste Guth was a regular contributor of portraits to Vanity Fair during the late 1880s and throughout the 1890s.
1 portrait in the collection
Finalist, iD2012
Claude-Marie Dubufe, born in Paris, is said to have studied with Jacques-Louis David.
1 portrait in the collection
Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.
François Jacques Dequevauviller was the son of the French engraver Nicolas-Barthelemy François Dequevauviller (1745–1807).
1 portrait in the collection
Patricia Piccinini places empathy at the heart of her practice. The tenderness of the moment dominates.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
This year (in March) we will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the formal establishment of the National Portrait Gallery. In the life of institutions, twenty years is not a long time.
Percy Spence, born in Balmain, grew up in Fiji and began art classes in Sydney in about 1888.
1 portrait in the collection
Jacques Etienne Victor Arago (1790-1855), author, artist and explorer, travelled with Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet on his 1817 voyage around the world on the Uranie.
3 portraits in the collection
Alphonse Pellion, artist and naval draughtsman, was a midshipman aboard l'Uranie on Louis de Freycinet's three-year scientific and ethnographic expedition around the world in 1817-1820.
2 portraits in the collection
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. 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
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
An interview with former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers, who describes the portrait of Sir Henry Barkly by Thomas Clark.
H. Walter Barnett (1862-1934) was a leading portrait photographer of the late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar periods.
12 portraits in the collection
The salacious and sordid details of Henry Kinder’s death transfixed Sydneysiders with a case combining murder with seduction, mesmerism, blackmail and poisoning.
Purchased 2000
Fred Williams OBE, painter and etcher, was one of the most important Australian artists of the twentieth century.
14 portraits in the collection
Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754–1803), cartographic surveyor and naturalist, was sent by the French government to survey the coast of Australia in 1800.
1 portrait in the collection
Just now we pause to mark the centenary of ANZAC, the day when, together with British, other imperial and allied forces, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Gallipoli at the start of the ill-starred Dardanelles campaign.
Stella Ramage on Father McHardy’s Bougainville portraiture.
François Péron (1775-1810), naturalist and explorer, served as a soldier from 1792 to 1794, in which period he was imprisoned and lost the sight of one eye.
6 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2015
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Gift of the artist 2023
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Grant Mudford (b. 1944) is a Sydney-born, Los Angeles-based photographer renowned for his large-format, abstract depictions of the urban landscape and built environment.
1 portrait in the collection
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott AM (1935–2013) was a self-described potter, whose international reputation was built on her exquisite still-life assemblages of refined, spare vessels in subtle colours and shapes.
1 portrait in the collection
Jules Poret de Blosseville (1802-1833), geographer, navigator and explorer, was a junior officer on the Coquille, which, under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey, conducted a voyage to Oceania and South America between 1822 and 1825.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Nicoll (1977‒2016), fashion designer, was born in London but spent much of his childhood in Perth.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The portrait of Ian Roberts by Ross Watson.
Paul Gaimard (1796-1858), naturalist and naval surgeon, joined the French navy after distinguishing himself at the naval medical school at Toulon.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
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
'Diving Venus' and 'the perfect woman' are two of the numerous descriptions applied to Annette Kellerman, who achieved international fame during the early decades of the twentieth century.
Andres Serrano, photographer, grew up in New York. After leaving school at fifteen to pursue a career as an artist he attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School between 1967 and 1969.
1 portrait in the collection
Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.
To celebrate the National Portrait Gallery’s twentieth anniversary as an institution, twenty portraits of outstanding Australian individuals have been commissioned for the permanent collection. This is the largest undertaking for the Gallery’s commissioning program in its twenty-year existence.
Escape the heat this summer and step inside the National Portrait Gallery for an array of family-fun activities. From storytelling and drawing to music and art, there’s something for everyone to enjoy at the Gallery.
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled twenty new portrait commissions of Australian leaders and individualists as part of its twentieth birthday celebrations in a new exhibition, 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
George Brown (1835-1917), clergyman, established numerous Methodist missions in the Pacific from the late 1880s.
1 portrait 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
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.
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.
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.
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.
US artist Cayce Zavaglia reveals human duality in her striking embroidered portraiture.
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.
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.
National Gallery of Australia curator Jane Kinsman discusses the portraiture of Henri Matisse.
How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.
Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
Karl James reflects on soldier portraiture during the Great War.
To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
Gideon Haigh discusses portraits of Australian cricketers from the early 20th century
Inga Walton sheds light on a portraiture collection usually only seen by students and teachers at Melbourne University.
Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
The exhibition Aussies all features the ecclectic portrait photography of Rennie Ellis which captures Australian life during the 70s and 80s.
An exhibition of humanness in ten themes by Penelope Grist.
Joanna Gilmour takes us behind the scenes of some of Ralph Heimans’ best-known portraits of royalty, heads of state and cultural icons.
The death of a gentlewoman is shrouded in mystery, a well-liked governor finds love after sorrow, and two upright men become entangled in the historical record.
Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.
Tom Fryer surveys the twentieth-century architectural project, and finds representation and the portrait were integral elements.
Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.
Basil grew into a speckled beauty – a long-legged leaper and an exceptionally vocal dog, with a great register of sounds, ascending in shock value from a whimper to a growl to a bark to a yelp that’s a violation of the ears.
Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.
Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.
Jane Raffan feasts on modernity’s entrée in the Belle Époque theatre of the demimonde.
Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.
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.
Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.
At first glance, this small watercolour group portrait of her two sons and four daughters by Maria Caroline Brownrigg (d. 1880) may seem prosaic, even hesitant
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.