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200 Years of Portraiture

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

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 McCusker & Vincent Fantauzzo

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

Malcolm, 1976

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

Malcolm Fraser, 1990 (printed 2010)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Malcolm McCusker AC CVO KC, 2022

Gift of Nigel Satterley AM and Denise Satterley 2022

Malcolm Fraser, Randwick Racecourse, 1975 (printed 2002)

Purchased 2012

First study for portrait of Malcolm Fraser, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012

Malcolm Williamson, 1948

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

Malcolm Fraser, n.d.

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.

Preparatory study of Tom Hughes, 2003

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Malcolm and Angus Young, AC/DC

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.

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

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Self portrait, 1962

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

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.

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

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, c. 1852

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, early 1880s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
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

The Hon. James Whyte, c. 1874

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

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

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

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 and John, 1981

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

The spirit walker, 2017

The Dipper

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

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.

The Hon E.G. Whitlam AC QC, 1980

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002

John Gorton, 1970

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

Hon Tom Hughes KC, 2001

Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003

Committed to the cause and each other

Love versus the law

John Gorton, 1997

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Bill Leak, 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002

Tilman Ruff, 2019

Purchased 2019

Angus Young, 2003 (printed 2014)

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

Zelman Cowen, c. 1977

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

John Gorton, 1970 (cast 1999)

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

Creature from the Black Platoon starring Gary Foley 2011, 2011

Purchased 2011

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

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, 1982

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

Whitlam & Snedden, 1974

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

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

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Proof

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.

Gary Foley, Invasion Day - We Have Survived, 1988

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

Sir Zelman Cowen, 2000

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

Colin Friels, n.d.

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

Donors

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.

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

Purchased 2010

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.

Sir Ian McLennan, c. 1978

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

Mal Meninga, 2018

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

Sir Ian Potter, 1973

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

Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 2002

Lowitja O'Donoghue, 2006

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, 1988 (printed 2015)

Purchased 2015

Margaret Robertson, c. 1863

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

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

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

Primed

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

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863

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

Martha Mary Robertson, 1866

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

Making Portraits

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

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

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 Robertson, 1866

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

2021 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.

Cool cool world

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

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.

The 1950s to the present day

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.

Mal Meninga, 2018

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

Stubbs and the horse

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.”

Recollections of a sinologist sitter

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

Time and light

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.

2022 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.

Giving and getting

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.

Portrait Donors

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.

Paper, boy

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

Prima facie

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

Some prime ministers

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

Friends and Acquaintances

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

Cultural kaleidoscope

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

Progressive pictures

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

The real Thea

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