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Pat Cash, 1999 (printed 2022)

Purchased 2022

Cash donations

Your donation can be directed towards the collection, education and learning programs, exhibitions, publications and online programs.

More cash than dash

Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.

Felix, Petty Cash Café Marrickville, 2019

Darling Portrait Prize 2024

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015). The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015

An annual event to extend traditional notions of portraiture and foster emerging artists with an interest in contemporary technology.

Interview with Ilya Milstein

An interview with Ilya Milstein, winner of the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Cash Award 2015

The Wandering Jew

Cash prize winner, MDPA 2015

Plan your visit

Information on location, accessibility and amenities.

Canon Australia takes National Photographic Portrait Prize first place to new heights

Entries are now open for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019, with the winner set to receive $52,000 in cash and prizes, including superb contributions from new sponsor, Canon Australia.

Prizes

Thanks to Canon Australia, the Winner of the NPPP 2020 will be awarded over $50,000 in prizes. Thanks to Eizo, the Highly Commended winner will receive a ColorEdge monitor, and the winner of the Art Handlers' Award will receive $2,000 thanks to IAS Fine Art Logistics.

National Photographic Portrait Prize

The NPPP is an annual prize for Australian photographers. The year’s most outstanding photographic portrait is awarded a $30,000 cash prize and photographic equipment valued at $20,000 courtesy of our Imaging Partner, Canon Australia.

Darling Portrait Prize 2020

The Darling Prize is a new biennial prize for Australian portrait painters, painting Australian sitters. The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024

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.

John Laws, 1981

Purchased 1999

Darling Portrait Prize 2022

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015). The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.

Prizes

Thanks to Canon Australia, the Winner of Living Memory will be awarded over $50,000 in prizes. Thanks to Eizo, the Highly Commended winner will receive a ColorEdge monitor, and the winner of the Art Handlers' Award will receive $2,000 thanks to IAS Fine Art Logistics.

iD Digital Portraiture Award winner announced

The inaugural winner of the $10,000 iD Digital Portraiture Award was announced this morning at the National Portrait Gallery.

Foundation

The Foundation encourages gifts, donations, bequests and legacies in service of the Gallery's mission.

Finalists announced for National Photographic Portrait Prize

The National Portrait Gallery would like to congratulate the forty finalists for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019.

The People’s Choice Awards

The votes have been counted, and the winners of the National Portrait Gallery’s People’s Choice Awards for the Prize exhibitions are...

Conditions of entry

Information about visiting the Gallery.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Images for media use will be available from 8 March 2018.

Creatures of Leisure, 1982

Winner announced for National Photographic Portrait Prize 2019

From an outstanding field of more than 3,000 entries, culminating in a shortlist of 39 exceptional finalists, the Winner and Highly Commended entries for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize have been named.

Parking

Parking is available in our underground car park every day of the week. Fees apply.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 winner announced

Finalists have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Winner and Highly Commended for the National Photographic Portrait Prize since December. It is our pleasure to announce the Winner for 2018 is Lee Grant for her portrait titled Charlie and Highly Commended has been awarded to Filomena Rizzo for her portrait titled My Olivia.

Portrait of Kenneth Rowell, 1967

Gift of Margaret Olley 2002. Transferred from the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Darling Portrait Prize

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015), who was instrumental in establishing the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.

Finalists Announced for Digitial Portraiture Award 2017

The National Portrait Gallery is thrilled to announce nine finalists have been selected from the national call for entries for the Digital Portraiture Award 2017.

The National Portrait Gallery Announces Art Handlers’ Award

The National Portrait Gallery is excited to announce that Perth photographer Elizabeth Looker has won the Art Handlers’ Award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015 finalists announced

The National Portrait Gallery have selected the finalists for the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015.

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.

National Portrait Gallery to undergo renovation work

The National Portrait Gallery will undergo renovation works in 2019 to maintain the integrity of its building and the Gallery’s collection of prized artworks.

Arts Handlers’ Award Announced for NPPP 2018

The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce Stephanie Simcox  has received the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Art Handlers’ Award for her portrait titled Joey.

Grow the Portrait Gallery of Australia

The Portrait Gallery is calling for contributions to support in the acquisition of superb portraits for the national collection.

Winners announced: Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2015

The winners of the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Awards will be announced tomorrow morning at 10.00am at the National Portrait Gallery.

The Winner of the Digital Portraiture Award 2016 is...

The winner of the Digital Portraiture Award 2016 has been announced. Congratulations to Amiel Courtin-Wilson for his submission titled Charles.

The 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize

Shea Kirk’s portrait of friend and fellow-artist Emma Armstrong-Porter has won the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize.

Feather voted the people’s favourite

The National Portrait Gallery is thrilled to announce that the People’s Choice award for this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize goes to Natalie Grono from Byron Bay for her photograph Feather and the Goddess Pool 2014.

Heads of the People

For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2014

Press releases for media.

Clara Crosbie, c. 1885

Gift of John McPhee 2018

The Burke and Wills Monument, 1869

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award media information

The National Portrait Gallery recently announced the finalists for the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2013.

In the National Interest

In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.

Living Memory – National Photographic Portrait Prize extended to January 2022

In light of recent and ongoing gallery closures brought on by the COVID pandemic, the NPG’s 2021 National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition season will be extended until 16 January next year.

The Seekers, 1993

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005

Ralph Kenke and Elmar Trefz win Digital Portraiture Award with Selfie Factory

The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce Mr Ralph Kenke and Mr Elmar Trefz are the winners of the Digital Portraiture Award 2017 for their submission Selfie Factory.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize: 2021 Living Memory

Director Karen Quinlan AM announces significant changes for 2021, including a larger, longer exhibition, themed to reflect our experience of events that have occurred in this historic year.

The Seekers reunite 50 years on, 2011

Gift of Judith Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gary Grealy wins National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017

After months of anticipation, the winner for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 has been announced with renowned Sydney portrait photographer Gary Grealy taking out the award. George Fetting, guest judge for the 2017 Prize, was entranced with the evocative nature of the winning portrait Richard Morecroft and Alison Mackay.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

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.

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.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020

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.

Graham Kennedy and the Seekers in Melbourne, c. 1968

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2007

Sideshow Alley

Death masks, post-mortem drawings and other spooky and disquieting portraits... Come and see how portraits of infamous Australians were used in the 19th century.

The National Portrait Prizes

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.

Strutt your stuff

Matthew Jones on the upshot of a St Kilda Road outrage.

Audacity, audacity, audacity

Angus delves into the biographies of two ambitious characters; Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir John Pope-Hennessy.

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.

Paper, boy

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

Terms and conditions

These terms and conditions govern entries to the National Portrait Gallery’s Darling Portrait Prize 2024.

The Rothschilds, the Montefiores, and the Victorian Gold Rush

Some years ago my colleague Andrea Wolk Rager and I spent several days in the darkened basement of a Rothschild Bank, inspecting every one of the nearly 700 autochromes created immediately before World War I by the youthful Lionel de Rothschild.

Of ice and men

Frank Hurley's celebrated images document the heroism and minutiae of Australian exploration in Antarctica.

The art of conciliation

Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.

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.

In a good paddock

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

Terms and conditions

The Dissecting Room

Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture. 

Listomania

Sarah Engledow describes the fall-out once Brett Whiteley stuck Patrick White’s list of his loves and hates onto his great portrait of the writer.

An actress and her fans

Dr. Sarah Engledow discovers the amazing life of Ms. Hilda Spong, little remembered star of the stage, who was captured in a portrait by Tom Roberts.

Secure the shadow ere the substance fade

The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.

Study in scarlet

Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.

Generous Janice

Dr Sarah Engledow puts four gifts to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection in context.

Christmas Island

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

Uncommon Australians

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