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Nancy Wake

A portrait story describing the amazing life of World War II resistance fighter, Nancy Wake.

Nancy Wake - The White Mouse, 2001

Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004

Capturing the Mouse

Nancy Wake AC (b. 1912), one of the most­ decorated women of World War 2, earned the name the 'White Mouse' for her maddening ability to evade the Gestapo.

Nancy Borlase

Recorded 1962

Nancy Bird Walton part one

Recorded 1977

Nancy Bird Walton part two

Recorded 1977

Pat Mackie, 2004

Purchased 2004

James McClelland, 1946

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gillian Appleton (McClelland) 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Nancy Bird Walton - Pioneer, 2003

Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004

Senator Nancy Buttfield, 1958

Gift of Senator Dame Nancy Buttfield DBE 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Nancy Bird Walton, c. 1973

Gift of Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

A Pioneering Life

During her time in Australian politics, Dame Nancy Buttfield was an impressive advocate for equality for women and was responsible for ending the marriage bar for women in the Public Service.

Noel Fraser Hickey, 1957

Gift of the artist 2021

The aviatrix

Joanna Gilmour explores the extraordinary life of Australian female aviator Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE

Blue Collar Icon

Dr Sarah Engledow delves into the life of union leader Pat Mackie who is depicted in a portrait by Nancy Borlase AM.

Nancy Borlase and Laurie Short, 1991

Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 1998

Double Portrait: Vida and Marie Breckenridge (study), 1999

Gift of Marie Breckenridge 2004

Portrait 13

This issue of Portrait Magazine features Nancy Wake, Jon Campbell's portrait of Paul Kelly, George Selth Coppin, Henri Cartier-Bresson and more.

Portrait 32

This issue features Vanity Fair, Nancy Bird Walton, William Barak, Sidney Kidman, Benjamin Duterrau's portraits of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania, and more.

Reverend George Brown DD, 1905

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Nancy Joyce 2014

Noni Hazlehurst, 1977 (printed 2011)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Teen Blooming

In my dreams I am dirty, broke, beautiful & free.

A free family festival to celebrate spring and Children’s Week

Wake from your winter hibernation to celebrate Children’s Week and Canberra’s spring season at the National Portrait Gallery’s free Spring Festival.

Bill Neidjie, 2000 (printed 2008)

Gift of the artist 2008

Pictorial profiles of hearth and home

Keep it in the family

Australian Love stories

Reconnect and reflect with our new major exhibition, Australian Love Stories (in real life!) as we explore love, affection and connection in all its guises.

The Legend of Ruby and Archie

A bond in song

The line of fire

Michelle Fracaro examines the life of World War II nurse Margaret Anderson, whose portrait by Napier Waller is in the NPG collection.

Estate of Alan Boxer

Alan Boxer, public servant, academic and art collector, was schooled in Melbourne and gained his economic qualifications in Melbourne and Oxford.

Colleen McCullough, 1992-1993 (printed 2005)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Gaby Kennard, 2020

Purchased with funds provided by Joan Connery OAM 2020

Portrait of a patron

A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.

Guy Pearce, 2000 (printed 2004)

Purchased 2005

Jack Thompson, 2013

Purchased 2015

Statement from Mr Angus Trumble

Today, Mr Angus Trumble, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, expanded on his reasons for removing the photographic portrait of Indonesian President Joko Widodo from exhibition.

General Cosgrove, Dili, East Timor 1999, 2006

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Andrew Cannon and L. Gordon Darling AC CMG 2006

Chips Rafferty, c. 1945

Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

Acacius (Stigmata) - Tony Carden, 1991

Gift of Lesley Saddington 2015

Judy Cassab

The artist's diary profiles six decades of Cassab's work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture.

MacKenzie family silhouette, 1846

Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007

Barry Jones, 1998

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000

Albert Namatjira, c. 1954-1958 (printed 2017)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Promise Fulfilled

The life and achievements of Sir Edward Holden, who is represented in the portrait collection by a bust created by Leslie Bowles.

National Youth Self Portrait Prize

An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities.

Richard Henry Horne, mid 1860s

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

First Ladies

First Ladies profiles women who have achieved noteworthy firsts over the past 100 years.

Diamond Doll

Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.

Unbuttoning uniforms

Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.

The Catholic Hierarchy of Australia, 1869

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Rick Amor

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.

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

Uncommon Australians

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.

Masters of Fare

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.

All there in black and white

The National Portrait Gallery acquired a beguiling silhouette group portrait by Samuel Metford, an English artist who spent periods of his working life in America.

So Fine

This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

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.

Husbands and Wives

'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.

Australians in Hollywood

The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.

Splendid, many-splendoured

Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.

High & Bligh

Joanna Gilmour explores the 1790 portrait of William Bligh by Robert Dodd.

The mystery of Enoch Arden

Tennyson's Enoch Arden was inspired by a story that Thomas Woolner passed on to him – but whose story and of whom?

Portrait Donors

The selfie stick

Last week ABC Television came to interview me about selfie sticks. The story was prompted by the announcement that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has lately prohibited the use of these inside their galleries. So far as I am aware we have not yet encountered the phenomenon, but no doubt we will before too long.

Memories

The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.

Conflicting images

Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.

Life class

Barbara Blackman reflects on her experiences as a life model.

A new perspective

An exhibition devoted to Hans Holbein's English commissions shows the portraitist bringing across the Channel new technical developments in art - with a dazzling facility.

The transparent mask

Cate Blanchett and the art of acting in Rosetzky’s digital portrait.

In the thick of it

Projecting the splendour of the empire, and the resolve of its subjects, the bust of William Birdwood keeps a stiff upper lip in the National Portrait Gallery.

Stigma stigmata

Angus Trumble provides poignant context for Aña Wojak’s portrait of Tony Carden.

In the galleries

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

Paths to portraiture

The life and art of Australian artist Jenny Sages is on display in the exhibition Paths to Portraiture.

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.

Abstraction and figuration

James Angus discusses his major sculpture commission Geo Face Distributor with Christopher Chapman.

Picture this...

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.

Go Figure!

Claire Roberts interviews Swiss art collector Uli Sigg.

Uncommon Australians

Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.

The importance of being bearded

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.

The life of Bryant

Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.

Flesh, figure and rock

Aimee Board traces Judy Cassab’s path to the Australian outback, arriving at the junction of inspiration and abstraction.

Shiny, happy people

Glynis Jones on the Powerhouse’s retrospective of one of Australia’s foremost fashion reportage and social photographers.

You beauty

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

The incomparable Beaton

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).

Alter ego

Tom Fryer surveys the twentieth-century architectural project, and finds representation and the portrait were integral elements.

Progressive pictures

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

Sea legged frogs

Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.

History

How the National Portrait Gallery and its unique collection came to be

Seeing stars

Joanna Gilmour explores photographic depictions of Aboriginal sportsmen including Lionel Rose, Dave Sands, Jerry Jerome and Douglas Nicholls.

The catechist and the cricketer

Stephen Valambras Graham traverses the intriguing socio-political terrain behind two iconic First Nations portraits of the 1850s.

A feast of friends

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

Regarding Henrys

Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.

All the way with K of K

Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.

Inner Worlds and psychoanalysis

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.