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Noel McKenna (b. 1956), artist, is best known for his spare linear style and paintings of everyday scenarios, often featuring animals and interiors.
3 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
It’s a matter beyond dispute that in the entire history of Australian art, it’s Noel McKenna who’s painted the liveliest rendition of the head of a Chihuahua.
Gift of the artist 2025. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Noel Stapleton (1927-2017) commercial artist, began his career in Brisbane in 1944.
1 portrait in the collection
Noel Rubie (1901–1976) was a painter and photographer who had a portrait and industrial photography studio in Sydney and worked during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
1 portrait in the collection
Noel 'Digger' McGrowdie (1920-1961), jockey, was born in Brisbane and educated at a Christian Brothers School in Toowoomba before being apprenticed in Brisbane at the age of fourteen.
1 portrait in the collection
Noel Counihan, born in Melbourne, began his career as a press caricaturist, freelancing in Australia, New Zealand and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.
1 portrait in the collection
Recorded 1961
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Foley 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barrie and Jenny Hadlow 2015
Gift of the artist 2021
Purchased with funds provided by the Basil Bressler Bequest 2003
Gift of Judi Preston-Stanley 2013
Sandra Bruce explores a new acquisition that has within it a story of interconnectivities in the Australian art world.
This exhibition expresses the joy and warmth that many of us derive from our animal companions, and celebrates their trusting, unpretentious ways, with portraits of Australians and their furry, feathered and fluffy friends.
It is not every day that a national gallery turns its walls over to the animal companions that bring unconditional love and joy to their owners but this summer we have opened the doors to 15 contemporary artists with very different ways of depicting our furry, feathered and scaled pets.
Lady Florence Packer (1915-2012) was born in Paris to Edmond Porges, a major in the British Army, and his Russian wife Marie-Mathilde Brodsky.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Finalist, DPA 2017
Single channel HD digital video
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.
Brian Dunlop studied at East Sydney Technical College and won the Le Gay Brereton Prize for Drawing while still a student.
7 portraits in the collection
Gift of Charles E. Lloyd Jones and Kim Lloyd Jones 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Wilfrid John Peisley, born in Bathurst, won a number of prizes at regional shows before gaining a scholarship to the East Sydney Technical College at the age of seventeen.
1 portrait in the collection
Hannah Benyon Lloyd Jones OBE (1901–1982) was the third wife of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones, the chairman of David Jones from 1920 until his death in 1958.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Ross family in memory of Noel and Enid Eliot 2014
Nigel Butterley AM (1935-2022) was one of the foremost Australian composers and pianists of his generation.
1 portrait in the collection
Nancy Menetrey (née Wilkinson) (1924-2024) was born in Sydney in 1924.
1 portrait in the collection
Diana O’Neil on Noel Counihan’s vivid 1971 portrait of Alan Marshall.
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
Purchased with funds provided by the Ross family in memory of Noel and Enid Eliot 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
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.
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.
The oil portrait of Sir Frank Packer KBE by Judy Cassab was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.
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.
Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.
National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan AM nominates her quintet of favourites from the collection, with early twentieth-century ‘selfies’ filling the roster.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.