Search / malcolm fraser

The Rt. Hon John Malcolm Fraser AC CH PC (1930-2015) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983.

5 portraits in the collection

The Right Hon. Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH

The Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH, who died in Melbourne on 20 March, was the last surviving prime minister of Australia to have been sworn of H.M. Privy Council (in 1976)—hence the “Right Honourable”.

Malcolm Fraser, 1990 (printed 2010)

Bill McAuley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

First study for portrait of Malcolm Fraser

First study for portrait of Malcolm Fraser, 1981

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Malcolm Fraser, Randwick Racecourse, 1975 (printed 2002)

Roger Scott

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2012

Malcolm, 1976

Frank Hinder

Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Malcolm Fraser, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2015

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Country man

Angus Trumble’s tribute to the late Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser.

Dawn Fraser AC MBE

Dawn Fraser AC MBE (b. 1937), swimming champion, had a stranglehold on the women's 100m freestyle from 1956 to 1964.

2 portraits in the collection

Eleven

Miriam Fraser

Noel Fraser Hickey

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

Malcolm Williamson AO CBE

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

1 portrait in the collection

Malcolm J. McCusker AC CVO KC

Barrister and philanthropist Malcolm James McCusker AC CVO KC was born in Subiaco, Western Australia in 1938.

1 portrait in the collection

200 Years of Portraiture

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.

Dawn Fraser, 1963

David Moore

Purchased 1998

Dawn Fraser, 1998 (printed 2001)

Peter Brew-Bevan

Purchased 2001

Noel Fraser Hickey, 1957

Nancy Menetrey

'How can I get out of doing this?'

Gift of the artist 2021

Malcolm McCusker & Vincent Fantauzzo

Portrait story

Malcolm McCusker talks with artist Vincent Fantauzzo about starting out as a lawyer and becoming Governor of Western Australia.

Malcolm McCusker AC CVO KC, 2022

Vincent Fantauzzo

Gift of Nigel Satterley AM and Denise Satterley 2022

Malcolm Williamson, 1948

Portrait, brown chalk and pastel on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diane Williamson and Marion Foote 2013

Preparatory study of Tom Hughes, 2003

Jiawei Shen

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Malcolm and Angus Young, AC/DC

Bob King

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

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.

After Ophelia: Fiona Foley at Lake Mackenzie, Fraser Island (Referencing Ophelia by John Everett Millais)

After Ophelia: Fiona Foley at Lake Mackenzie, Fraser Island (Referencing Ophelia by John Everett Millais), 1994

Juno Gemes

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008

Sir Billy Snedden KCMG

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Sir Billy Snedden KCMG QC (1926-1987), politician, was elected as a federal member in 1955.

1 portrait in the collection

Gough and John, 1981

Peter van der Veer

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

The Hon E.G. Whitlam AC QC, 1980

Graeme Inson

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on masonite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

Hon. Gough Whitlam AC QC

Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (1916-2014) was prime minister from the end of 1972 to the end of 1975.

12 portraits in the collection

Whitlam & Snedden, 1974

Frank Hinder

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

John Gorton, 1970

Victor Greenhalgh

Portrait, terracotta

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

John Gorton, 1997

Nathan Kelly

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Rt Hon Sir Zelman Cowen AK GCMG GCVO QC DCL

The Rt Hon Sir Zelman Cowen AK GCMG GCVO QC DCL (1919-2011), academic, writer and former Governor-General, was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne before serving in the navy in the Second World War.

3 portraits in the collection

Tilman Ruff, 2019

Nikki Toole

Purchased 2019

Clyde Cameron

Clyde Cameron (1913-2008), Labor politician and historian, worked as a shearer and union organizer before serving as a Member for Hindmarsh between 1949 and 1980.

1 portrait in the collection

Tilman Ruff AO

Tilman Ruff AO (b. 1955), infectious diseases and public health physician, was a founder of ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

1 portrait in the collection

Out of the blocks

Early sporting fame

Portrait, ball point pen on paper

Dawn Fraser, Lionel Rose, Shane Gould and Cathy Freeman

Preparatory study for the portrait of the Hon Tom Hughes KC

Preparatory study for the portrait of the Hon Tom Hughes KC, 2001

Jiawei Shen

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Zelman Cowen, c. 1977

Ray Crooke AM

Portrait, pencil and oil on canvas laid on chipboard

Gift of David Crooke 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

John Gorton, 1970 (cast 1999)

Victor Greenhalgh

Portrait, cast bronze

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Cast 1999 from terracotta donated by Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999

Bryan Westwood

Portrait, oil on masonite

Bryan Westwood (1930-2000) was a painter and printmaker who twice won the Archibald Prize, for his portrait of artist and critic Elwyn Lynn (1989) and of the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating (1992).

10 portraits in the collection

Self portrait, 1962

Arnold Shore

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Shore 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Zelman Cowen, 1982

Andrew Sibley

Portrait, pencil, brush and ink on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Dowling family portrait [Selina, Jane, Leura and Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling]

Dowling family portrait [Selina, Jane, Leura and Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling], c. 1862

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Portrait of a young man, held to be John Robertson

Portrait of a young man, held to be John Robertson, c. 1852

Portrait, daguerreotype, hand coloured

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Maria Dowling and her children Leura, Bessie, Selina, Jane, Jack, Ben and Joe Dowling [Selina Dowling, Jane Dowling, Maria Jane Dowling (née Ware), John Ware Dowling, Joseph Dowling, Benjamin Dowling, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling, Leura Dowling]

Maria Dowling and her children Leura, Bessie, Selina, Jane, Jack, Ben and Joe Dowling [Selina Dowling, Jane Dowling, Maria Jane Dowling (née Ware), John Ware Dowling, Joseph Dowling, Benjamin Dowling, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dowling, Leura Dowling], c. 1859

Portrait, ambrotype, hand coloured

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Leura Dowling, c. 1861

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

Maria Jane Dowling, c. 1862

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

William St Leonards Robertson (standing) beside an unidentified man

William St Leonards Robertson (standing) beside an unidentified man, early 1880s

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

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

Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke, c. 1976 (printed 2017)

Robert McFarlane

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

The Hon. James Whyte, c. 1874

John Hubert Newman

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

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

Sir Zelman Cowen, 2000

Wes Walters

Portrait, eight carte de visites, hand coloured, contained in a red leather presentation case

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Marc Besen AO and Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2000

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida]

William and Martha Mary Robertson and their children [William St Leonards, Eliza, John, William St Leonards on a horse, Beatrice and Ida], 1860s-1870s

Various

Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Angus Young

Portrait, 24 page brown leather bound album of 119 cartes de visite and 16 cabinet card photographs

Angus Young (b. 1955), guitarist and songwriter, was a founding member of Australia's most successful ever band, AC/DC.

3 portraits in the collection

Album of cartes de visite and cabinet cards compiled by William St Leonards Robertson, 1860s-c. 1900

Various

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

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG

Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG (1932–2024), a Yankunytjatjara woman, dedicated her life’s work to advancing the rights and wellbeing of Australia’s First Peoples.

2 portraits in the collection

Sir John Gorton GCMG AC CH

The Rt Hon Sir John Gorton GCMG AC CH (1911–2002) was the nineteenth prime minister of Australia and the only senator yet to have served in the office.

5 portraits in the collection

Sir Ian McLennan, c. 1978

Portrait, oil on board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Ian Potter, 1973

Portrait, oil on composition board

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Primrose Potter 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sketch for portrait of Justin O'Brien, 1980

Portrait, oil with fibre-tipped pen underdrawing on composition board

Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 2002

The Hon. Bill Hayden AC

The Hon Bill Hayden AC (1933‒2023) was Governor-General of Australia from 1989 to 1996 and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983.

1 portrait in the collection

Lowitja O'Donoghue, 2006

Robert Hannaford AM

Commissioned with funds donated by BHP Billiton Limited, Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund, Newmont Australia Limited, Reconciliation Australia, Hon Paul Keating and Hon Fred Chaney 2006

Discussion between Bob Hawke and Yunupingu, Burunga Festival, Northern Territory

Discussion between Bob Hawke and Yunupingu, Burunga Festival, Northern Territory, 1988 (printed 2015)

Sue Ford

Purchased 2015

The spirit walker, 2017

by Alex Ellinghausen

Miriam Hyde AO OBE

Miriam Hyde AO OBE (1913-2005), composer, recitalist, teacher, examiner, poet, lecturer and writer of numerous articles for music journals, studied first with her mother and then with William Silver at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide.

1 portrait in the collection

The Dipper

Moustaches

One of the versions of thick, macho moustache strongly associated in the Australian visual lexicon with sportsmen of the 1970s and 80s.

Fiona Foley

Gettin’ robbed, gettin’ stoned, gettin’ beat up, broken boned

Fiona Foley (b.1964), Badtjala artist, activist, curator and writer, grew up on Fraser Island and in nearby Hervey Bay before moving south to study art at the East Sydney Technical College.

2 portraits in the collection

Oz Rock

Two of the music industry’s highest-selling performers originated in suburban Australia. The Bee Gees started out in Brisbane, for instance, and AC/DC played their first gigs at a nightclub in inner Sydney.

Fearless leader, 2008

by Rosalind Smallwood

Hon. Jim Carlton AO

Hon Jim Carlton AO (1935-2015), a Liberal Party politician, represented the Sydney electorate of Mackeller in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1994.

1 portrait in the collection

Sidney Nolan, 1964

Axel Poignant

Purchased 2003

Hon Tom Hughes KC, 2001

Jiawei Shen

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Fiona Foley in her studio at Hervey Bay, 1994

Juno Gemes

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

Nolan Heads

Previous exhibition, 2001

Nolan Heads will focus on the portraiture of one of Australia's most original painters and one of the few to have achieved an international reputation

Peter de Waal and Peter Bonsall-Boone, St Kilda, October 1966 Unknown artist

Committed to the cause and each other

Devotion

Love versus the law

Mungo MacCallum

Mungo MacCallum (1941–2020) was one of Australia's best-known political journalists.

1 portrait in the collection

Bill Leak, 1999

Simon Obarzanek

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

The Honourable J.J. Carlton with Cravat, 2000

Esther Erlich

Gift of an anonymous donor 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Evert Ploeg

Evert Ploeg began his career as a commercial illustrator in the mid-1980s.

7 portraits in the collection

Bruce Spence

Bruce Spence (b. 1945), actor, made his film debut in the title role of Tim Burstall's Stork (1971), its title relating neatly, if coincidentally, to his 2.01m frame.

1 portrait in the collection

Angus Young, 2003 (printed 2014)

Ingvar Kenne

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

Colin Friels

Colin Friels (b. 1952) arrived in Australia as an adolescent with his Scottish parents, both blue-collar workers.

1 portrait in the collection

Creature from the Black Platoon starring Gary Foley 2011

Creature from the Black Platoon starring Gary Foley 2011, 2011

TextaQueen

Portrait, carte de visite photograph

Purchased 2011

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew

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

Hills & Saunders

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

Patrick Ryan

Patrick Ryan (d. 1990) and Tim Burstall set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, 2005

Rick Amor

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Paul Taylor

Portrait, drypoint on paper

Paul Taylor (1957-1992), critic and curator, graduated from Monash Univeristy in 1979.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, 1999

Rick Amor

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

Sidney Nolan

Previous exhibition, 2005

Sir Sidney Nolan AC OM CBE (1917–1992) was one of the most original and inventive Australian artists of the postwar decades, and one of few Australian artists to achieve an international reputation in the twentieth century.

7 portraits in the collection

Peter Brew-Bevan Portraits

In this exhibition Sydney based photographer Peter Brew-Bevan brings together an intimate collection of works that highlight his passion for the genre of portraiture over the last 10 years

Maggie Tabberer AO

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Maggie Tabberer AO (b. 1936), designer, writer, editor, publicist and television presenter, is one of Australia's best-known personalities.

1 portrait in the collection

Judith Wright, 1988 (printed 2021)

Jacqueline Mitelman

Purchased with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AC 2021

Recollections of a sinologist sitter

Magazine article by Professor Stephen FitzGerald AO, 2016

Professor Stephen Fitzgerald, Australia’s first Ambassador to China, traces the historical course from sino-australian cultural engagement to a maturing Australian identity.

Mungo MacCallum, press gallery cricket, 1973

Frank Hinder

Portraits from The Movement 1978-2003

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Proof

Previous exhibition, 2003

Portraits from The Movement is the first comprehensive survey of photographs from the Juno Gemes archive, which has supported the Aboriginal struggle for justice in Australia from 1978 to the present day.

Judith Wright

Judith Wright (1915–2000), poet, conservationist and Aboriginal land rights campaigner, was born at Thalgaroch Station, near Armidale, NSW, into a pastoralist family whose origins go back to the first settlement in the Hunter Valley in the 1820s.

3 portraits in the collection

Gary Foley, Invasion Day - We Have Survived

Gary Foley, Invasion Day - We Have Survived, 1988

Juno Gemes

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

Colin Friels, n.d.

Stuart Campbell

Portrait, oil and enamel on hardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012

Sketch for portrait of Tom Uren, 1972

Clifton Pugh AO

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tom Uren's family 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Primed

Some Prime Ministers

Previous exhibition, 2019

Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.

Nancy Menetrey

Nancy Menetrey (née Wilkinson) was born in Sydney in 1924. After serving with the Australian Women's Land Army, formed during the Second World War to address labour shortages in the agricultural sector, she travelled overseas in the early 1950s, living and working in London for a number of years.

1 portrait in the collection

Donors

$10,000 - $49,999

Magazine article by Lauren Dalla, 2004

Depth of Field

The exhibition Depth of Field displays a selection of portrait photographs that reflect the strength and diversity of Australian achievement.

Sidney Nolan, Western Australia, 1962 (printed 2000)

David Moore

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001.

Shane Gould

Stop in all the byways, playin' rock 'n roll

Born the year that Dawn Fraser won her first Olympic Gold medal, Shane Gould (b.1956) in her very brief international career, became one of the world’s greatest female swimmers.

Guthugga Pipeline, Christmas Show, upstairs, The (old) Griffin Centre, Civic, 22 December 1979. Crowd, L-R : Ben Donaldson, Anne Redmond, Nick Vollis, Esa Makela, Megan Woodrow (Mohawk), Andy Hall (scarf) 'pling

Capital Cool

Outsiders tend to give Canberra a bad rap: sterile, plagued by politicians, a comatose capital for professionals and academics. Nick Cave once said he didn’t like the city because there were too many punks.

Supporters

$5,000 - $9,999

Archived media releases 2014

Rick Amor 21 Portraits

20 November 2014

Press releases and image downloads for media.

Cultural kaleidoscope

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.

Bon Scott & Angus Young, Atlanta, Georgia

Bon Scott & Angus Young, Atlanta, Georgia, 1978 (printed 2010)

Rennie Ellis

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Purchased 2010

Mal Meninga AM

Malcolm (Mal) Meninga AM (b. 1960) is one of Australia’s most lauded rugby league players.

2 portraits in the collection

Rick Amor

Previous exhibition, 2006

Rick Amor (b. 1948) is a Victorian-based painter, printmaker and sculptor.

27 portraits in the collection

Portraits for Posterity

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.

Mal Meninga, 2018

Peter Hudson

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018

Murray Rose, Jon Henricks and John Devitt

Murray Rose, Jon Henricks and John Devitt, 1955

Ern McQuillan OAM

Portraits in the Landscape

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004

Open Air

Previous exhibition, 2008

Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.

Margaret Robertson, c. 1863

Batchelder & O'Neill

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

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

Australian of the Year

Inspiring a Nation

Previous exhibition, 2010

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

Making Portraits

Five Years of National Portrait Gallery Commissions

Previous exhibition, 2004

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

A Captured Moment

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2001

The acquisition of David Moore's archive of portrait photographs for the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

W & D Downey

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

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

Annual Appeal

Listed by year

Tim Burstall

Previous exhibition, 2023

Tim Burstall (1927-2004) set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.

2 portraits in the collection

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

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.

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863

William Edward Kilburn

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

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

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval, 1985

Rick Amor

Portrait, pencil on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2016

Rick Amor

21 Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2014

Rick Amor, noblest yet most unaffected of contemporary Australian portraitists, is also a painter of enigmatic, ominous landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes that haunt the viewer like dreams, dimly-recalled.

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

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

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

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

Progressive pictures

Magazine article by Aimee Board, 2017

Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.

William Robertson, 1866

Thomas Adams Hill

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

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

Portrait of Professors Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis

Portrait of Professors Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis, 2017

Jacqueline Mitelman

Commissioned with funds provided by Jim and Barbara Higgins, Sir Roderick Carnegie AC, Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer, Louise and Martyn Myer Foundation, Peter and Ruth McMullin, Diana Carlton, Professor Derek Denton AC, Harold Mitchell AC, Peter Jopling AM KC, Andrew and Liz Mackenzie, Patricia Patten, Tamie Fraser AO, Bruce Parncutt and Robin Campbell, Lauraine Diggins, Steven Skala AO and Lousje Skala 2017

Very fine and very like

Brenda L Croft, Prue Hazelgrove, Richard Crampton

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?

blood/memory: Brenda & Christopher I (Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra; Mara/Ngarrindjeri/Ritharrngu; Anglo-Australian/Chinese/German/Irish/Scottish) 2021

blood/memory: Brenda & Christopher I (Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra; Mara/Ngarrindjeri/Ritharrngu; Anglo-Australian/Chinese/German/Irish/Scottish) 2021, 2022 (printed 2023)

Portrait, original wet plate collodion process tintype, digital scan to Ultrachrome pigment on paper

Purchased 2023

2021 Annual Appeal

Annual Appeal

In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.

The Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen KGAK GCMG GCVO KBE QC, 2006 by Rick Amor

Prima facie

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.

Skyhooks (Red Symons, Bob Starkie, Shirley Strachan, Greg Macainsh, Freddie Strauks) in Parker’s studio, Fitzroy, 1975 David Parker

Cool cool world

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Penelope Grist unpacks photographs by David Parker, who captured the phenomenal emergence of the 1970s and 80s Melbourne music scene.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Previous exhibition, 2018

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.

Peter Wilmoth, age 12, with copies of Our World 1974 Courtesy of the author

Paper, boy

Magazine article by Peter Wilmoth, 2016

Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.

The 1950s to the present day

Mo and beard timeline

Certain European leaders (needless to name) had the effect of making certain styles of facial hair decidedly undesirable in the years immediately after World War 2.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009

Previous exhibition, 2009

In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.

Mal Meninga, 2018

by Peter Hudson

Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018

Lustre, held by a Groom, ca. 1762 by George Stubbs

Stubbs and the horse

Previous exhibition, 2006

One of the chief aims of George Stubbs, 1724–1806, the late Judy Egerton’s great 1984–85 exhibition at the Tate Gallery was to provide an eloquent rebuttal to Josiah Wedgwood’s famous remark of 1780: “Noboby suspects Mr Stubs [sic] of painting anything but horses & lions, or dogs & tigers.”

Australian Visit

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.

Some prime ministers

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.

Uncommon Australians

Previous exhibition, 2015

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

2022 Annual Appeal

Annual Appeal

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.

Friends and Acquaintances

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.

Giving and getting

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

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.

Sydney city (Patrick White and Tom Uren, Hiroshima Day demonstration), 1984

The activist A-list

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2007

Dr Sarah Engledow examines a number of figures in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery who were pioneers or substantial supporters of the seminal Australian environmental campaigns of the early 1970s and 1980s.

Picture this...

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2003

This edited version of a speech by Andrew Sayers examines some of the antecedents of the National Portrait Gallery and set out the ideas behind the modern Gallery and its collection.

Portrait Donors

Listed by year

Magazine article by The Hon. Dr Kevin Rudd, 2009

An Australian story

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

First-Class Marksman, 1946 by Sidney Nolan

Money for Myth

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2015

Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.

Through blue eyes

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

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.

Portrait of Thea Proctor, 1905 by George Lambert

The real Thea

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

Long after the portraitist became indifferent to her, and died, a beguiling portrait hung over its subject.

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

Petal to the mettle

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

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

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits