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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Search / phil may

Phil May

Biography

Phil May (1864–1903), cartoonist, was born in Leeds and educated there before his family’s financial circumstances saw him leave school and start work at age thirteen.

1 portrait in the collection

Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.

Phil (Phil May), 1895

Sir Leslie Ward, Vanity Fair Magazine

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

David Armstrong, B.A., B. Phil., 1959

Clifton Pugh AO

Portrait, oil on masonite

Gift of Jennifer Armstrong 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Tommy Emmanuel

Biography

Tommy Emmanuel AM (b. 1955), guitarist, was taught to play by his mother and is said to have been a working musician by the age of six.

1 portrait in the collection

Headspace 6

Who Am I?

Previous exhibition, 2005

The sixth in the National Portrait Gallery’s series of student exhibitions, will feature 200 portrait artworks, both two and three-dimensional, from secondary school students from across Australia

1 to 6

Magazine article by David Sequeira, 2005

The National Portrait Gallery's annual survey of student self portraiture highlights the processes of personal inquiry through portraiture by students from all levels across Australia.

Alf Vincent

Biography

Alfred Vincent began working for the Bulletin in 1896, taking over from the renowned Phil May, his idol, with whom he was often - inevitably - unfavourably compared.

1 portrait in the collection

Percy Spence

Biography

Percy Spence, born in Balmain, grew up in Fiji and began art classes in Sydney in about 1888.

1 portrait in the collection

Mervyn Bishop

Biography

Mervyn Bishop (b. 1945), a Murri photographer, began a cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1963.

6 portraits in the collection

Troppo Architects

General content

The studios of Troppo Architects are located away from Australia’s major urban centres.

Michael Kelly, 1998

Rick Amor

Portrait, soft ground etching on paper.

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Kenneth W. Catchpole OAM

Biography

Ken Catchpole OAM (1939-2017), former rugby union international, excelled at various sports in his school years in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, but began to show real prowess in rugby as a student at Scot’s College in the 1950s.

1 portrait in the collection

Tom Durkin

Biography

Thomas Coleman Durkin trained at the Williamstown School of Design and started work in Melbourne as an apprentice to an engraver and then a jeweller.

27 portraits in the collection

Charles Haddon Chambers

Biography

Charles Haddon Chambers (1860-1921), playwright and dramatist, grew up in Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

Gary Foley

Biography

Gary Foley (b. 1950) is a Gumbainggir activist, actor, historian, curator and academic.

2 portraits in the collection

Self-portrait in black jumper, 2017 Graeme Drendel

Be frank

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2020

Close encounters are the genesis for Graeme Drendel’s enticing portraiture.

Ken Catchpole, 2014

Gary Grealy

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Commissioned with funds from the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series 2014

2023 Annual Appeal

Annual Appeal

In 2023 the Annual Appeal was focussed on a work by one of Australia's best loved and most successful portrait painters, Judy Cassab AO CBE, depicting model, entrepreneur and deportment icon, June Dally-Watkins OAM.

Lucy Culliton

Explore The Popular Pet Show

Most well-regarded pictures of chickens show them dead. A reliable way to tell if a chicken in a painting is dead is to check if it’s hanging upside down, because unlike, say, cockatoos, chickens don’t practise inversion for enjoyment in life.

Self Portrait, Stuart Campbell by Stuart Campbell

The essence of you

Magazine article by Lee Tulloch, 2011

Lee Tulloch remembers her great friend NIDA-trained actor turned photographer Stuart Campbell.

Suave

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

Exhibition introduction

General content

One night in the spring of 1970 in an old house in Whale Beach, north of Sydney, John Witzig, Albe Falzon and David Elfick put together the first issue of Tracks, playing Neil Young’s album Harvest over and over again as they pasted up galleys of type.

Doodles of the Diva

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Three tiny sketches of Dame Nellie Melba in the NPG collection were created by the artist who was to go on to paint the most imposing representation of the singer: Rupert Bunny.

Thinking about architecture and portraiture

Magazine article by Dr Christopher Chapman, 2009

Dr Christopher Chapman describes the experimental exhibition Portraits + Architecture

Friends and Acquaintances

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

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

A spectral sentience

Magazine article by Aimee Board, 2019

Aimee Board reveals method, motivation and mortality in the portraiture of Rod McNicol.

Mary (or Diana) Croker, mat woman, Colchester, 1823 by John Dempsey

Unknown drawer

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2017

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits

General content

Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.

32 results

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Search / phil may

Phil May

Ian

Nic, 2010

Millie, 2012

Northern exposure

Phil (Phil May), 1895

David Armstrong, B.A., B. Phil., 1959

Tommy Emmanuel

Headspace 6

1 to 6

Alf Vincent

Percy Spence

Mervyn Bishop

Troppo Architects

Michael Kelly, 1998

Kenneth W. Catchpole OAM

Tom Durkin

Charles Haddon Chambers

Gary Foley

Be frank

Ken Catchpole, 2014

2023 Annual Appeal

Lucy Culliton

The essence of you

Suave

Arcadia: Sound of the sea

Doodles of the Diva

Thinking about architecture and portraiture

Friends and Acquaintances

A spectral sentience

Unknown drawer

Rick Amor: 21 Portraits