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Naomi Watts (b. 1968), actress, was born in England and came to Australia from Wales at the age of fourteen.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of the artist 2004
Lieutenant John Watts (1755-1801) joined the Navy in 1770 and embarked with James Cook in 1776 on the fatal voyage of the Resolution.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Naomi Cass, Director of the Centre of Contemporary Photography, in conversation with Anne Zahalka.
Multidisciplinary artist Naomi Hobson, of the Kaantju language group and Patta skin group, after the Death Adder snake, lives and works on Country in Coen, Cape York Peninsula addressing powerful links between Country and identity.
Peter Brew-Bevan discusses two experiences where his plans for his portraits produced surprising results.
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Haskins is known for his poetic combinations of images and this exhibition of 'extended' portraits builds on this approach.
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
Arts Project Australia, Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, ‘stArts with D’ Performance Ensemble, Abdul Abdullah, Alison Alder, Amrita Hepi, Atong Atem, Christopher Bassi, Kate Beynon, Mia Boe, Baby Guerrilla, Tarryn Gill, Julie Gough, Naomi Hobson, Deborah Kelly, Fiona McMonagle, Angelica Mesiti, Dylan Mooney, Nell, Sally Smart, Vipoo Srivilasa, Latai Taumoepeau and Kaylene Whiskey.
Commissioned with funds provided by Nigel Satterley AM and Denise Satterley 2020
Julia Margaret Cameron was of the most important photographers of the nineteenth century.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds provided by Harold Mitchell AC 2015
Eva Besen AO (1928–2021), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with her husband Marc Besen AC.
1 portrait in the collection
Marcus (Marc) Besen AC (1923–2023), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with his wife Eva Besen AO.
1 portrait in the collection
Judith Pungarta Inkamala (b. 1947), senior potter, is an Arrernte woman who was born in Hermannsburg, 130 km west of Alice Springs.
3 portraits in the collection
Although perceived to be a recent phenomenon, the 'Aussie invasion' of Hollywood can actually be traced as far back as the early 1900s
Gift of Chris Nielsen 2016
From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, John Kaldor AO and Naomi Milgrom AO 2018
Dame Annie Florence Cardell-Oliver DBE (1876–1965), politician, grew up in Melbourne before marrying David Sykes Boyd, a wool buyer, and returning with him to England.
1 portrait in the collection
The Hermannsburg Potters are a collective of highly respected senior women artists of the Western Arrarnta (Arrernte) community.
1 portrait in the collection
How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006
This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Carol Jerrems: Portraits is a major exhibition of one of Australia’s most influential photographers. Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers transcend the purely personal and have come to shape Australian visual culture.
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AO, John Kaldor AO and Naomi Milgrom AO 2018
Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.
Let’s take a look at the National Photographic Portrait Prize for 2024!
Australian photographer Karin Catt has photographed world leaders, a host of rock stars and Oscar-winning compatriots Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, and Cate Blanchett.
Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
As the National Portrait Gallery opens its exhibition of portrait and figurative work by veteran photographer Sam Haskins, the artist reflects on the highlights of his fifty-year career so far.
Hall of Mirrors: Anne Zahalka Portraits 1987-2007 explores the thread of portraiture through the artist's prolific career, now spanning more than 20 years.
The Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) was established in 1976, following two years of planning and research on the part of its founding patrons, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Lady Joyce Delacombe.
2 portraits in the collection
In 2020 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Sally Robinson's remarkable portrait of author Tim Winton.
In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.
Penelope Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2020 Prize.
Following the success of Glossy: Faces, Magazines, Now in 1999 the National Portrait Gallery again highlights the huge array of contemporary portraiture in the pages of magazines.
In this major new exhibition marking the National Portrait Gallery’s third decade, 23 Australian artists and collectives have been invited to create portraits without constraints or boundaries.
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 National Portrait Gallery today announced finalists for the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize, a national new $75,000 prize for Australian portrait painting, and released selected images from the final prize pool for the popular National Photography Portrait Prize.
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.
Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.
Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.
Michael Desmond, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2007 Prize.
An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.
Michael Desmond profiles a handful of the entrants in first National Photographic Portrait Prize and notes emerging themes and categories.
Nici Cumpston immerses herself in the collective vision of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020.
Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
Chairman Sid Myer AM, Hayley Baillie, Tim Bednall, Jillian Broadbent AC, Patrick Corrigan AM, Marilyn Darling AC, Tim Fairfax AC, Sam Meers AO, John Liangis, Dr Helen Nugent AC and Nigel Satterley AM.
Inga Walton delves into the bohemian group of artists and writers who used each other as muses and transformed British culture.
Penelope Grist and Rebecca Ray talk to the artists in Portrait23: Identity about transcending modes of portraiture.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.