Search / queen 20elizabeth

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (1900–2002) was born the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon.

2 portraits in the collection

Queen Victoria

Victoria (1819–1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901.

8 portraits in the collection

Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who subsequently became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

4 portraits in the collection

Queen Mary

George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.

3 portraits in the collection

Polly Borland on Queen Elizabeth II

In their own words

Recorded 2017

Her Majesty, The Queen, Elizabeth II (Blue), 2001

Purchased 2021

HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2001

Portrait, coloured chalk on artist board

Purchased 2002

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II)

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (future Queen Elizabeth II), 1942-1943

Charles Wheeler

Purchased 2019

Duchess of Cornwall and York (later Queen Mary), 1903

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015

Duchess of Cornwall and York (later Queen Mary), 1903

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015

Duchess of Cornwall and York (later Queen Mary), 1903

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015

Portfolio of 54 portraits compiled by Queen Victoria, 1859–1861 by John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Camille Silvy, Frances Day and William Bambridge

Queen of cartes

Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.

Longest reign

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on paper laid on cardboard

Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-reigning British sovereign

Queen Susan, c. 1868

Thomas J. Washbourne

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

The latest portrait of Her Majesty Queen Victoria

The latest portrait of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, c. 1896

John Thomson

Portrait, albumen silver cabinet card photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Portrait story

Magazine article by Polly Borland, 2022

Photographer Polly Borland on capturing Queen Elizabeth II.

Her Majesty, 1860

John J. Mayall

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased 2020

A nation mourns the loss, c. 1861

an unknown artist

Portrait, lithograph in carte de visite format on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Her Majesty seated, 1860

John J. Mayall

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Purchased 2020

Queen Victoria in mourning, with a portrait of Prince Albert

Queen Victoria in mourning, with a portrait of Prince Albert, c. 1862

an unknown artist

Portrait, lithograph in carte de visite format on paper on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2012

Imagination

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2013

Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.

Portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

Portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, 2005

Magazine article by Mette Skougaard, 2006

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

Australian visit in Denmark

In April 2006 the National Portrait Gallery showcased Australian portraits at the Fredenksborg Castle in Denmark.

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (full-length study)

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (full-length study), 2005

Portrait, black pastel on brown paper

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (profile head study), 2005

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

Ralph Heimans AM

Study for commissioned portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (full-length study), 2005

an unknown artist after Georg Emil Hansen

Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005

Princess Mary

Portrait story

Artist Jiawei Shen describes the symbolism in his portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra)

Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra), c. 1862

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

A Cimiez. Promenade matinale (Queen Victoria)

A Cimiez. Promenade matinale (Queen Victoria), 1897

Jean Baptiste Guth, Vanity Fair Magazine

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Purchased 2015

Australian Princess

Magazine article by Katherine Russell, 2005

The full-length portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark by artist Jiawei Shen, has become a destination piece for visitors.

The painter and the princess

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2006

Michael Desmond interviews Ralph Heimans about his portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

Queen Victoria, 1901

The Illustrated London News after Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant

Portrait, photogravure on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Queen Victoria, 1860-1865

Post Office Photographic Studio, Melbourne after John J. Mayall

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2020

Dane reign

Magazine article by Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby, 2018

Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.

The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2012 by Ralph Heimans

Glorious

A Diamond Jubilee portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Previous exhibition, 2012

Glorious: A Diamond Jubilee portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is a collection-based display representing The Queen in the early and late years of her glittering sixty-year reign.

Polly Borland

'Everyone wants to know the story about the Queen'

Portrait story

Australian photographer, Polly Borland, describes the hectic experience of photographing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Victoria

Last Sunday I had the privilege of appearing at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in conversation with Julia Baird. The subject of our session was Julia’s recent biography, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.

The National Portrait Gallery is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Throughout her 70-year reign, Her Majesty represented graciousness, humanity and stability during times of enormous social change.

HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, 2018 Ralph Heimans AM

Powerful Portraits: Queen Elizabeth I of England to Queen Mary of Denmark

Event, Sunday 28 April

In association with the exhibition, Ralph Heimans: Portraiture. Power. Influence. Associate Professor, Robert Wellington discusses the enduring connection of status with painted portraits.

Essie Coffey (Bush Queen) and Orlando Gemes

Essie Coffey (Bush Queen) and Orlando Gemes, 1978 (printed 2003)

Juno Gemes

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

Shane Balcomb aka. Sasha Trajik-Mole, drag queen, 2011

by David Kelly

Portrait, albumen paper photograph

Queen Rose of the Wathaurung People, c. 1876-1877

Fred Kruger

Purchased 2017

Queen Elizabeth I

associated with Nicholas Hilliard

Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and Electress Palatine

Robert Peake the Elder

June Mendoza

June Mendoza AO OBE, born into a musical family in Melbourne, has lived in England for many years.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Walter Ralegh (Raleigh)

Unknown artist

Carol Spencer AM

Portraiture. Power. Influence.

Carol Spencer AM (b. 1943), known as Carlotta, is a cabaret performer, television personality and LGBTIQ+ advocate.

1 portrait in the collection

Ralph Heimans

Current exhibition

The exhibition will feature some of the most significant portraits in the artist’s career to date, from early major works such as his painting of HM Queen Mary of Denmark through to his most recent.

Lovely Lillie and Dirty Bertie

Lust

Royal romps: illicit liaisons

Gooseberry, widow of King Bungaree, 1836

William Fernyhough

Portrait, lithograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Golden Jubilee

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2002

Polly Borland's photograph of The Queen was commissioned by Buckingham Palace as part of a series of high profile celebrations to mark the Golden Jubilee.

Richard von Marientreu

December 2002 - February 2003

Richard von Marientreu was born in Poland and attended military academies in Cracow and Vienna before leaving for Prague, where he studied at the Academy of Painting.

2 portraits in the collection

Portrait 6

This issue of Portrait Magazine features articles about the NPG's Barry Humphries exhibition and Polly Borland's portrait of The Queen.

Portrait 44

Summer 2012/2013

This issue features The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait, Nicholas Harding, Ingvar Kenne, Laura Moore, Michael Rosen and more.

John Cann and his father, 2007

by Hugh Stewart

In conversation with Colin Davidson

Belfast-based artist, Colin Davidson talks about the fortuitous happenstances that led to him painting a range of famous faces (from Brad Pitt to the Queen, and everyone in between!)

Carlotta, Kings Cross (Les Girls), 1970-1971

Rennie Ellis

Previous exhibition, 2018

Purchased 2006

King Edward Terrace

Behind the street name

Visiting the gallery

King Edward Terrace was named in honour of King Edward VII (1841-1910)

Carte-o-mania!

Drawn from the NPG’s burgeoning collection of cartes de visite, Carte-o-mania! celebrates the wit, style and substance of the pocket-sized portraits that were taken and collected like crazy in post-goldrush Australia.

Round the World (Thomas Brassey), 1877

Carlo Pellegrini, Vanity Fair Magazine

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Purchased 2015

Essie Coffey

Portrait, pastel on paper

Essie Coffey OAM (1940-1998) was a community worker, singer, actor and film-maker.

1 portrait in the collection

Portrait of Dame Roma Mitchell, 1940s

Geoffrey Mainwaring

Gift of friends of Dame Roma Mitchell 2018

Portrait of Mrs Sarah Fairfax, c. 1864

Edwin Dalton

Portrait, pastel on paper laid on canvas

Gift of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

David Simpson

David Simpson, photographer, is represented in the Art Gallery of South Australia, his subjects including HM Queen Elizabeth II, Don Bradman, David Gulpilil and Sir Mark and Lady Oliphant.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Brassey

Previous exhibition, 2022

Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836–1918), politician and governor, studied law and modern history at Oxford, but abandoned law for a career in politics two years after being called to the Bar.

1 portrait in the collection

WHO ARE YOU

Australian portraiture

Featuring 130 works across painting, film, photography, screen printing, sculpture, and then some – it explores our inner worlds, outer selves, intimacy, isolation, celebrity and more.

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth
of Brunswick, 1804

Around the grounds

Magazine article by Dr Anne Sanders, 2010

Anne Sanders writes about the exhibitions Victoria & Albert: Art & Love on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the retrospective of Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Thomas Herbert Maguire

London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company

Thomas Herbert Maguire was a painter and lithographer working in London in the middle of the nineteenth century.

4 portraits in the collection

Sir Oswald Brierly, c. 1870

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Johann Zoffany

Johann Zoffany, painter of portraits and conversation pieces, grew up in the court of the Prince von Thurn und Taxis in Germany, where his father was employed.

1 portrait in the collection

Nicole Kidman, c. 1980

Lewis Morley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Glitter and colour on the streets of Erskineville, 2015

by John McRae

John David Armstrong

John David Armstrong (1857–1943) was a sideshow and vaudeville performer known as ‘The Australian Tom Thumb’.

2 portraits in the collection

John T. Barber

John Thomas Barber, army officer, insurer, miniaturist and philanthropist, took the additional name of Beaumont in 1812.

1 portrait in the collection

The Hon. Dame Roma Mitchell AC DBE CVO QC

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

The Hon. Dame Roma Mitchell AC DBE CVO QC (1913–2000) was the first Australian woman to be a Queen's Counsel, Supreme Court judge, Acting Chief Justice, Deputy University Chancellor, Chancellor and State Governor.

2 portraits in the collection

Lillie Langtry, c. 1885

W & D Downey

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

John Landy AC CVO MBE

Melbourne-born track and field athlete John Landy AC CVO MBE (1930–2022) came to the nation’s attention as a young man in the mid-1950s, as he followed his first Olympic competition at Helsinki in 1952 with a series of extraordinary races over the course of the next four years.

1 portrait in the collection

Bambi Tuckwell

Patricia 'Bambi' Tuckwell (1926-2018) was a leading Australian fashion model as well as a promising violinist.

1 portrait in the collection

Favourite portraits

National Portrait Gallery staff introduce their favourite portraits from the exhibition.

The Hon. Alex Chernov AC QC, 2019

Anne Middleton

King George V

George Frederick Ernest Albert, The Duke of Cornwall and York and later King George V (1865-1936), was the son of Edward VII, the man for whom the Edwardian era was named.

4 portraits in the collection

Anthony Buckley & Constantine Ltd

Anthony Buckley and Constantine are portrait photographers by appointment to Their Royal Highnesses Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

1 portrait in the collection

Samuel Shelley

Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools as a seventeen year-old in 1774 and exhibited at the Academy regularly from this time until 1804.

2 portraits in the collection

Albert Namatjira, Artist, Alice Springs, c. 1957

Purchased 2003

Sir William Beechey

Portrait, wood and glazed ceramic

Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1 portrait in the collection

Pair of bookends with portraits of Albert Namatjira, c. 1950

Don Mount

Gift of Ron Radford 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Patricia 'Bambi' Tuckwell (Shmith), c. 1952

Max Dupain OBE

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003

Coral Browne

Coral Browne (1913-1991) was an Australian actress who left for England in 1934.

1 portrait in the collection

Candidate for Chelsea (9th Earl of Kintore)

Algernon Hawkins Thomond Keith-Falconer

Algernon Hawkins Thomond Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore (1852–1930) was governor of South Australia from 1889 to 1895.

1 portrait in the collection

Ernest Walter Histed

Ernest Walter Histed was born in Brighton, UK, but made his reputation as a photographer in Chicago and later in Pittsburgh.

1 portrait in the collection

George French Angas

George French Angas (1822-1886) was an artist and shell collector, who published many illustrations of the plants, native animals and peoples of the southern hemisphere.

2 portraits in the collection

Paul Fitzgerald AM

Paul Fitzgerald AM, a Melbourne-based artist, made his career as a professional portraitist.

4 portraits in the collection

Marcia Hines

Marcia Hines (b. 1953) sang in church choirs while growing up in Boston, Massachusetts and had her first solo singing engagement at the age of seven.

1 portrait in the collection

HRH Prince Alfred

Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (1844–1900) was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria.

4 portraits in the collection

John Landy, c. 1954

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004

Ralph Heimans AM

Sydney-based painter Ralph Heimans AM (b. 1970) is one of the world's foremost contemporary portraitists, having created a body of work that has expanded and redefined the possibilities of what is sometimes perceived as an inflexibly traditional genre.

19 portraits in the collection

Dora Byrne, 1951

Richard von Marientreu

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Leslie Walford AM 2013

Thinking of England

Passion

Truly, madly, deeply

Bruce Ruxton, 1995

Paul Fitzgerald AM

Faces of the Twentieth Century

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Bruno Grollo 1999

Karsh

Previous exhibition, 1998

Yousuf Karsh - the most famous portrait photographer in the world - has photographed the statesmen, artists, literary and scientific figures who have defined the 20th century and shaped our lives, In this, his 90th year, the National Portrait Gallery is thrilled to present an exhibition of Karsh's photography of 20th century figures.

Sir William Dargie

A Ninetieth Birthday Tribute

Previous exhibition, 2002

As a tribute to Sir William Dargie's singular contribution to Australian art and cultural institutions, and on the occasion of his birthday, The Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery will mount exhibitions of his work between May and October

Neale Daniher AO

Neale Daniher AO, Australian Football player, coach and general manager, was born in West Wyalong, New South Wales in 1961.

1 portrait in the collection

A & G Taylor

Photographers Andrew Taylor and George Taylor opened their first studio in Cannon Street in east London in 1866.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir William Dargie CBE

Sir William Dargie CBE (1912–2003) studied at the Melbourne Technical College, and then in the studio of AD Colquhoun from 1931 to 1934.

22 portraits in the collection

H B. Hall

Henry Bryan Hall grew up in England and began his trade as an apprentice to the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Oswald Brierly

Sir Oswald Brierly (1817–1894), marine painter and adventurer, studied art, naval architecture and navigation in England before his fascination with seafaring caused him to sign up as staff artist on the Wanderer – a schooner owned by entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd, who was about to embark on a round-the-world trip.

1 portrait in the collection

Howard Barron

Howard Barron (1900–1991), artist, was born in Kent, England. He arrived in Sydney in 1924 where he trained with Sir Will Ashton.

1 portrait in the collection

Peter Porter OAM

Peter Porter OAM (1929-2010), poet and critic, moved from Brisbane to London in 1951 at age 22.

2 portraits in the collection

Ern McQuillan OAM

Portrait, charcoal and pastel on paper

Ern McQuillan OAM (1926–2018), photographer, was born in Sydney and grew up in the inner western suburbs.

24 portraits in the collection

Study of male ballet dancers standing in a line

Study of male ballet dancers standing in a line, 2007

Jenny Sages

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J Sages Family Trust 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Lady Edith Knox

Edith Knox (1855–1942), matriarch, was a daughter of Janet and Scottish-born merchant and businessman Joseph Scaife Willis, who was president of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce and a founding director of the Sydney Exchange Co.

1 portrait in the collection

Bill Hunter

Anthonis Mor (Antonio Moro)

Bill Hunter (1940-2011), actor, spent five decades on Australian television and cinema screens.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Henry Lee

Babette Hayes, London, early 1960s

Lewis Morley

Portrait, charcoal and pastel on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Study of female ballet dancers, 2007

Jenny Sages

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J Sages Family Trust 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Study of a pair of ballet dancers, 2007

Jenny Sages

Portrait, charcoal and pastel on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J Sages Family Trust 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

George Moore

George Moore (1923-2008), champion jockey, was born in Mackay, Qld and was apprenticed in Brisbane in 1938.

1 portrait in the collection

The Australian Tom Thumb (John David Armstrong), c. 1880

J D. Cooper

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on composition board

Purchased 2014

Albert Namatjira, 1958

Sir William Dargie CBE

Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC and with the assistance of Philip Bacon Galleries 2000

Charles Kean

Charles Kean (1811-1868), actor, threw in his Eton education when his mother was deserted by his penniless father, the tragedian Edmund Kean.

1 portrait in the collection

Erwin Fabian

Erwin Fabian (1915-2020) was a sculptor, industrial designer and graphic artist.

3 portraits in the collection

Sir Asher Joel

Sir Asher Joel (1912-1998), public relations entrepreneur and state politician, started out as a copyboy at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

1 portrait in the collection

Peter Dombrovskis

Peter Dombrovskis, photographer and environmental activist, was born of Latvian parents in a refugee camp in Wiesbaden at the end of World War 2.

1 portrait in the collection

Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE

Portrait photography by John Elliott

Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE (b. 1931), former sprinter, was Governor of South Australia from 2001 to 2007.

3 portraits in the collection

Thousand Mile Stare

Previous exhibition, 2004

Thousand mile stare provides a unique portrait of people of rural Australia

Hugo at home (Hugo Weaving), 2011

Nicholas Harding

Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2012

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre and Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre

Hans Eworth

Geoffrey Shedley

Geoffrey Shedley was a prominent South Australian architect, with a lifelong interest in drawing and sculpture.

1 portrait in the collection

John Longstaff

Sir John Longstaff, born in Clunes, Victoria, studied at the NGV school from 1883 to 1887 and thenceforth at Corman's in Paris.

1 portrait in the collection

John Dowie AM

John Dowie AM (1915–2008), artist and teacher, is best known for his public sculptures held in most Australian capital cities.

1 portrait in the collection

John Darling

John Darling (1923-2015), businessman, company director and media producer was the son of Harold Gordon Darling, chair of BHP.

1 portrait in the collection

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne

William Lamb

William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848), statesman, was Prime Minister of Britain in 1834 and from 1835 to 1841.

2 portraits in the collection

Bess Norriss Tait

Bess Norriss Tait (1879-1939), artist, was born in Melbourne and studied under Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School between 1897 and 1901.

1 portrait in the collection

The Rt. Hon Sir Edmund Barton GCMG PC KC

Sir Edmund Barton GCMG PC KC (1849-1920), Australia’s first prime minister, was the youngest of nine children of a well-educated woman.

6 portraits in the collection

Willow Legge

Willow Legge (b. 1934) is a British artist who studied sculpture at Chelsea School of Art from 1951 to 1956 under Willi Soukop and Bernard Meadows.

1 portrait in the collection

Robin Sellick

Portrait, synthetic polymer paint and gold leaf on birch panel

Robin Sellick (b. 1967), photographer, is well known for his distinctive portraits of Australian actors, musicians, politicians and athletes.

17 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Helen Caldicott, 2021

Leeanne Crisp

Gift of Dr Helen Caldicott 2022

Dame Roma Mitchell, 1998

Jessica Hromas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Hammond Care Group 1999

Sir Henry Wylie Norman

Portrait, oil on wood panel

Sir Henry Wylie Norman (1826–1904), governor and army officer, was born in London, the son of a merchant who conducted his business chiefly in India and the Caribbean.

1 portrait in the collection

Self portrait, late 1930s

Sir William Dargie CBE

Gift of L Gordon Darling AC CMG in recognition of Sir William Dargie's role in the establishment of the National Gallery of Australia 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V)

Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V), 1903

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015

Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V), 1903

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Roberts 2015

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew

William St Leonards Robertson and the Oxford boat race crew, early 1880s

Hills & Saunders

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Opening of the First Legislative Council of Victoria by Governor Charles Joseph LaTrobe at St Patrick's Hall, Bourke Street West, Melbourne November 13th 1851

Magna Carta

On this day eight hundred years ago at Runnymede near Windsor, King John signed Magna Carta.

The Hon. Susan Crennan AC KC

The Hon. Susan Crennan AC KC (b. 1945) is a leading barrister and former High Court judge.

1 portrait in the collection

Lady Knox, c. 1927-1929

W B McInnes

Charles Turner after Sir George Hayter

Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Melbourne, 1839

Portrait, mezzotint on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013

Kylie Minogue, 1999

Purchased 2000

Angela Brennan

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on cabinet card

Angela Brennan (b. 1960) is a highly regarded contemporary Australian painter and ceramicist.

1 portrait in the collection

Bessie Lee, c. 1890

Yeoman & Co, Melbourne

Purchased 2017

Hugo Weaving AO

Samuel Freeman, Fisher, Son & Co London after Sir Thomas Lawrence

Hugo Weaving AO (b. 1960), actor, spent his childhood in England, Australia and South Africa before returning to live in Australia in 1976.

1 portrait in the collection

William Lamb, Baron Melbourne, 1832

Portrait, engraving on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012

Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London

Announcing Shakespeare to Winehouse

24 November 2021

Archived media releases 2021

More than eighty treasures from the National Portrait Gallery London will travel to Canberra for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from March 2022.

Dame Zaha Hadid

Michael Craig-Martin

Albert Namatjira

Portrait, charcoal on paper

Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira (1902–1959) is one of Australia's most celebrated and important artists.

6 portraits in the collection

Julian Rossi Ashton, 1933

Eric Wilson

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Philip Bacon AM 2012

Portrait of Brian Dunlop, c. 1972

Bryan Westwood

Portrait, oil on canvas laid on cardboard

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Sir Asher Joel, n.d.

Louis Kahan AO

Portrait, pencil on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Brian Dunlop

Portrait, charcoal on paper

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

Study for portrait of Les Murray, 1995

David Naseby

Gift of the artist 2001

Guy Pearce, 2000 (printed 2004)

Karin Catt

Purchased 2005

Florence Austral, c. 1930

Howard Barron

Gift of the University of Newcastle (Australia) 2007

Sir Alec N. Broers

Alec Nigel Broers, Lord Broers FRS, HonFMedSci, FREng (b. 1938) was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1996 to 2003.

1 portrait in the collection

Judy Cassab AO CBE

Judy Cassab AO CBE (1920–2015) was one of Australia's best-loved, most successful and prolific portrait painters.

22 portraits in the collection

TJ Smith and Tulloch, 1960 (printed 2003)

Celebrating 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003

Portrait of Susan Crennan, 2017

Lewis Miller

Portrait, oil on linen

Gift of the Hon. Susan Crennan AC KC 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Of Kings and men

Previous exhibition, 2011

This display celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia.

Bryce Gyngell AO

Bruce Gyngell (1929–2000) presided over the first commercial television transmission in Australia, launching the medium here with the now famous phrase: 'Good evening, and welcome to television'.

1 portrait in the collection

Frederick Cato

Frederick Cato (1858-1935), grocer and philanthropist, was born in a tent at Pleasant Creek (Stawell), to the Scottish wife of an English gold miner.

1 portrait in the collection

Wenten Rubuntja, 1998

Greg Weight

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Sir William Deane AC KBE KC

Sir William Deane AC KBE KC (b. 1931), High Court judge, was governor-general of Australia from early 1996 to mid-2001.

1 portrait in the collection

James Alipius Goold

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

James Alipius Goold (1812-1886), first Catholic bishop and archbishop of Melbourne, volunteered for service in New South Wales having studied in Rome and Perugia.

2 portraits in the collection

Kylie Minogue 1, 2018 (printed 2020)

Nicole Bentley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2020

Kylie Minogue 2, 2018 (printed 2020)

Nicole Bentley

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2020

Sigrid Thornton AO

Sigrid Thornton AO (b. 1959), actor, has been a household name since her performance in the box-office hit The Man from Snowy River in 1981.

1 portrait in the collection

Peter Allen, 1980

William Yang

Sir Leslie Ward, Vanity Fair Magazine

Purchased 2003

Australia (Sir Edmund Barton), 1902

Portrait, chromolithograph on paper

Gift of Mr Ronald Walker 2001

Sir William Deane 2008, 2008

Merilyn Fairskye

Portrait, single channel moving image, colour, sound, 2 minutes, 47 seconds

Purchased 2011

Alan Goldberg AO QC

Alan Goldberg AO QC (1940-2016), Federal Court judge, was born into a pioneering Jewish Melbourne family and graduated from the University of Melbourne law school in the early 1960s.

1 portrait in the collection

Simon Tedeschi

Simon Tedeschi (b. 1981), award-winning classical pianist, grew up in Sydney, and essentially abandoned his school lessons as an adolescent to concentrate on his piano studies with Neta Maughan.

1 portrait in the collection

Julian Ashton CBE

Julian Rossi Ashton CBE (1851-1942), art teacher, artist and critic, trained in art in London and at the Académie Julian in Paris before coming to Australia to work on the Illustrated Australian News in 1878.

4 portraits in the collection

Irina Baronova

Previous exhibition, 2010

Irina Baronova (1919–2008) was one of the three legendary 'baby ballerinas' of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, who created an international dance sensation in the 1930s and 1940s.

1 portrait in the collection

Jenny Sages

Paths to Portraiture

The exhibition Sages examines the process of portrait making through four large-scale portraits of women by Jenny Sages, paired with intimate preparatory drawings.

Dame Mabel Brookes, c. 1955

Sir William Dargie CBE

Gift of Rodney Davidson AO OBE 2014. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Untitled #88 (Captain Brad Kilpatrick and Kylie Minogue, Balibo, East Timor, 20 December 1999)

Untitled #88 (Captain Brad Kilpatrick and Kylie Minogue, Balibo, East Timor, 20 December 1999), 1999

Matthew Sleeth

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Untitled #15 (Kylie Minogue performs at Tour of Duty concert at Dili Stadium, East Timor, 21 December 1999)

Untitled #15 (Kylie Minogue performs at Tour of Duty concert at Dili Stadium, East Timor, 21 December 1999), 1999-2000

Matthew Sleeth

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Portrait 64

Summer 2019/20

'The photojournalists of their time'

Marian Anderson, emerging photographer Charles Dennington, piscatorial portraits, and the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou and more.

Captain Cook

Portrait story

An exploration of the role of artists such as John Webber who, whilst a member of Cook’s crew over many voyages, created paintings and drawings of the situations and people the explorers encountered.

The Architecture of Music (Vladimir Ashkenazy)

The Architecture of Music (Vladimir Ashkenazy), 2011

Ralph Heimans AM

Gift of Michael Crouch AC and Shanny Crouch 2017

Julian Ashton Life Class, 1920

Harold Cazneaux

Purchased 2015

Maurice Felton

Portrait, albumen silver photograph on cabinet card

Maurice Appleby Felton (1803-1842) arrived in Sydney with his wife and four children in late 1839 as surgeon to the immigrant ship the Royal Admiral.

3 portraits in the collection

Edward Hargraves, c. 1884

Henry King

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Geoffrey Dyer

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Geoff Dyer (1947-2020) was renowned landscape and portrait painter whose practice depicted Tasmania and its people.

1 portrait in the collection

Alan Goldberg, 2014

Jacqueline Mitelman

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015

Stephen Page AO

Stephen Page AO (b. 1965), Nunukul dancer and choreographer, has been artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre since 1991.

2 portraits in the collection

The Honourable Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC

The Hon Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC

The Hon. Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC (b. 1954) became Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia in 2017 and is the first woman to have held the role.

1 portrait in the collection

George Moore, 1957

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003

The Illustrated London News

The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper.

3 portraits in the collection

Portrait 67

Winter 2022

William Yang on his autobiographical self portraits, David Parker's 1970s and 80s Melbourne music photographs, seven-time NPPP finalist Chris Budgeon, and Benjamin Warlngundu Ellis.

Painter John Brack with Professor Alex Mitchell and Sir Garfield Barwick

The Rt. Hon Sir Garfield Barwick AK GCMG QC

The Rt Hon Sir Garfield Barwick AK GCMG QC (1903–1997) was Chief Justice of Australia from 27 April 1964 to 11 February 1981 – the longest serving Chief Justice of Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Marjorie Cotton Isherwood

Portrait, gelatin silver photograph, selenium toned on paper

Marjorie Cotton Isherwood (1913–2003) was the first professionally qualified children's librarian in New South Wales and many of her initiatives continue today.

1 portrait in the collection

Albert and his wife Rubina, Macdonnell Ranges

Albert and his wife Rubina, Macdonnell Ranges, 1946

Axel Poignant

Purchased 1999

Ming Vase (Sir Robert Menzies), c. 1970

Les Tanner, Gus McLaren

Portrait, glazed ceramic

Purchased 2004

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

Charles Chauvel

Portrait, inkjet print from a scanned colour transparency on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017

Portrait of Alec Campbell, 2001-2004

Terry Eichler

Magazine article by Sandra Phillips, 2020

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005

Vincent Brady leading anti Bicentenary Protest, Brisbane, 1987 Michael Aird

Activating the space

Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.

Queen Alexandra and Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, Hvidore, circa 1908 by Mary Steen

The cost of living luxuriously

In 1904, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia purchased as a gift for her sister, Queen Alexandra, a fan composed of two-color gold, guilloché enamel, mother-of-pearl, blond tortoiseshell, gold sequins, silk, cabochon rubies, and rose diamonds from the House of Fabergé in Saint Petersburg.

Rolf Harris

Rolf Harris (1930-2023) was named the 5th most influential artist and entertainer of the 20th century in a millennial poll by Time magazine.

4 portraits in the collection

Lady Primrose Potter AC

Lady Primrose Potter AC was born in Sydney in 1931 and lives in Melbourne.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir Gerard Smith

Sir Gerard Smith (1839-1920), governor, was educated at Eton before purchasing a commission as an ensign and lieutenant in the Scots Fusilier Regiment of Foot Guards, with whom he served in Canada in 1863-1864.

1 portrait in the collection

Kylie Minogue AO OBE

Kylie Minogue AO OBE (b. 1968), the 'Princess of Pop', is Australia's most successful female recording artist of all time, selling more than 80 million albums worldwide, and the first woman to have a UK number one album across five consecutive decades.

5 portraits in the collection

Angus Trumble

Magazine article by Phil Manning, 2017

Angus Trumble (1964-2022) was born and raised in Melbourne. He studied Fine Arts and History at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1986.

Thomas Mathewson (inset) and his studio on Queen Street, c. 1908 by Thomas Mathewson & Co

Northern exposure

Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.

Sir John Gorton GCMG AC CH

Previous exhibition, 2008

The Rt Hon Sir John Gorton GCMG AC CH (1911–2002) was the nineteenth prime minister of Australia and the only senator yet to have served in the office.

5 portraits in the collection

Self Portrait (Textanude) by Arlene TextaQueen

Animated

Self Portraits Online

Animated is the National Portrait Gallery's first online exhibition.

Gordon Powell AM KCSJ

A Portrait of Colonial Australia

Gordon Powell AM KCSJ (1911-2005) Presbyterian minister, broadcaster and writer, is regarded as one of the most influential Australian Presbyterians.

1 portrait in the collection

Bungaree, late chief of the Broken Bay tribe, Sydney

Heads of the People

Previous exhibition, 2000

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

Robert Neill

Robert Neill arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Edinburgh in 1820 with his free-settler parents and two siblings.

1 portrait in the collection

Past directors

History

Directors of the National Portrait Gallery from 1998 to today.

Portrait of Rolf, 1968

Hayward Veal

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009

Self portrait, 1992

Rolf Harris

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999

Rolf Harris, 1999

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Michael Hutchence, 1997

Harry Borden

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

J.C. Williamson, c. 1913

John Longstaff

Portrait, pencil on paper

Gift of the family of Aimée Viola Horsley, daughter of J.C. Williamson 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Rolf Harris, 1989

Rick Amor

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

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?

Dr Helen Caldicott

Magazine article by Tamsin Hong, 2016

Dr Helen Caldicott (b. 1938), physician, author and activist, was born Helen Broinowski in Melbourne and gained her degree in Medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1961.

1 portrait in the collection

Rev. Victor B. Walls and Mrs. Walls, Trinidad, B.W.I., c.1930

The first nurse

Tamsin Hong recounts the tale of Marion Smith, the only known Australian Indigenous servicewoman of World War One.

Malcolm J. McCusker AC CVO KC

Barrister and philanthropist Malcolm James McCusker AC CVO KC was born in Subiaco, Western Australia in 1938.

1 portrait in the collection

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Vladimir Ashkenazy (b. 1937), pianist and conductor, began playing the piano at age six.

1 portrait in the collection

May Emmeline Wirth

Previous exhibition, 2018

May Emmeline Wirth (1894–1978), circus performer, was once described as the ‘greatest lady bareback rider of all time’.

1 portrait in the collection

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

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 Honourable Bob Hawke savouring a strawberry milkshake, 2017 by Harold David

The intellectual larrikin

Magazine article by Barrie Cassidy, 2019

Barrie Cassidy pays textured tribute to the inimitable Bob Hawke.

W. B. Gould

Liverpool-born William Buelow Gould (1803-1853) had worked as a draftsman for the London printmaker, Rudolph Ackermann, and as a painter for a Staffordshire pottery before being transported to Van Diemen’s Land for theft in 1827.

1 portrait in the collection

Marcia Hines, c. 1981

Lewis Morley

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Betsy (Bessie) Lee

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2003

Betsy (Bessie) Lee Cowie (1860–1950), 'Australia's Temperance Queen', spent the early part of her life in Daylesford, Victoria, one of the five children of Henry Vickery, a butcher and miner, and his wife Emma.

1 portrait in the collection

Sir William Dargie CBE

Sir William Dargie, painter and eight times winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture, died in Melbourne on July 26, 2003, aged 91.

Ada Jemima Crossley

Ada Jemima Crossley (1874–1929), singer, was one of several Australian-born divas to achieve an international reputation in the late nineteenth century.

2 portraits in the collection

Nellie Melba, 1898

Ernest Walter Histed

Archived media releases 2017

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Toni Collette as Muriel trying on a wedding dress by Robert McFarlane, Muriel’s Wedding, 1994

Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits opens

9 November 2017

Visitors will be left in awe with the National Portrait Gallery and National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s (NFSA) new star-studded exhibition, Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits.

Time and light

In Gallery Seven

Previous exhibition, 2023

This sample of 56 photographs takes in some of the smallest photographs we own and some of the largest, some of the earliest and some of the most recent, as well as multiple photographic processes from daguerreotypes to digital media.

Albert Jonas and John Xiniwe of The African Choir, 1891 London Stereoscopic Co.

Back in black

Magazine article by Krysia Kitch, 2017

Krysia Kitch reviews black chronicles at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Masters of Fare

Chefs, winemakers, providores

Previous exhibition, 2004

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.

Edward Hammond Hargraves

Previous exhibition, 2006

Edward Hammond Hargraves (1816–1891), adventurer and speculator, claimed credit for the discovery of payable goldfields in New South Wales.

1 portrait in the collection

Australian Visit

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.

Nicholas Harding

28 Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2017

Nicholas Harding: 28 portraits features paintings of Robert Drewe, John Bell and Hugo Weaving alongside gorgeously coloured recent oil portraits, delicate gouaches and bold ink and charcoal drawings.

Angus Trumble

12 October 2022

Media

Members of the Board, Foundation and staff of the National Portrait Gallery are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Angus Trumble.

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson

William Robertson and Martha Mary Robertson, 1863

William Edward Kilburn

Portrait, carte de visite photograph on card

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Thomas Woolner

Previous exhibition, 2009

Thomas Woolner, sculptor, studied first with the brothers Henry and William Behnes, painter and sculptor respectively, and later at the Royal Academy, at which he was to become professor of sculpture in his fifties.

5 portraits in the collection

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009

In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.

To Look Within

Self Portraits in Australia

Previous exhibition, 2004

This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present

Charles Blondin, 1874

Timothy Noble

Infamy, the macabre & the portrait

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Sideshow Alley

Previous exhibition, 2015

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.

Henry Squires, c. 1861

Dalton's Royal Photographic Gallery

Portrait, albumen silver carte de visite, hand coloured on card

Purchased 2009

William St. Leonards Robertson, c. 1869

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

Thousand mile stare

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2004

John Elliott talks about his photographic portrait practice, including his iconic image of Slim Dusty arm-in-arm with Dame Edna Everage.

Primed

Some Prime Ministers

Previous exhibition, 2019

Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.

Cocky McGrath

The vision of Gordon and Marilyn Darling

The long life and few words of a vice-regal cockatoo

Uncommon Australians

Previous exhibition, 2015

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.

Hugo Weaving as Horatio Farrat by Ben King Film: The Dressmaker, 2015

If you love movies, you’ll love Starstruck!

8 August 2017

Archived media releases 2017

In an unprecedented partnership, the National Portrait Gallery and National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) present a new star-studded exhibition, Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits.

Nicholas Chevalier, c. 1867

Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co

Portrait, albumen photograph on carte de visite

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

Karl Robert, Count Nesselrode, 1818 by Sir Thomas Lawrence

The Lawrence lustre

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2019

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Venetia, Lady Digby, circa 1633-1634 by Sir Anthony van Dyck

Love in the extreme

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2020

Joanna Gilmour reveals love’s more intense manifestations in the tale of Lord Kenelm and Venetia Digby.

Unpacked

Magazine article by Louise Cummins, 2022

Louise Cummins reveals the rich symbolism in Michael Peck’s photorealistic portrait of AFL legend and MND ambassador Neale Daniher.

A quiet moment

Magazine article by Helene Ladomirska, 2006

As Bryan Westwood’s portrait of Brian Dunlop hangs adjacent to Brian Dunlop’s portrait of the philanthropist Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, we see the artist of one work as the subject of the other.

Anna F. Walker

Anna Frances Walker (1830–1913), botanical artist and collector, was one of the thirteen children of Thomas Walker, a high-ranking colonial public servant, and his wife Anna Elizabeth, the daughter of merchant and landowner John Blaxland.

1 portrait in the collection

Crikey!

Magazine article by Jennifer Gason, 2003

Robin Sellick captured a rare moment of quietude from the late conservation star Steve Irwin.

Nobel and his prize

To complement the exhibition Australians and the Nobel Prize, Jennifer Gason gives us a sense of the proceedings that occur during the award ceremony.

Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children, 1940

The incomparable Beaton

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

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).

Announcing... Ralph Heimans: Portraiture. Power. Influence.

30 November 2023

Media

In March 2024, the National Portrait Gallery will launch a major exhibition of the work of Ralph Heimans AM, the Australian artist who’s painted some of the world’s most recognisable people.

Spikes: then and now

Magazine article by Christopher Baker, 2013

As part of its ongoing program of commissions of portraits of prominent Australians, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a portrait of Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson by South Australian artist Avril Thomas.

Hot Scots

James Holloway describes the first portraits you encounter when entering the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The stately lotus

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2004

I spent much of my summer holiday at D’Omah, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta. Lotus and waterlilies sprout in extraordinary profusion in artful ponds amid palms and deep scarlet ginger flowers.

Brolga

A Queer Koori Wonderland

Event, Friday 3 May

Go find your costume box and get ready to shake your tail feathers at Brolga, this year’s iteration of the National Portrait Gallery’s 18+ late-night event!

The Multifarious Career of George Selth Coppin

George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.

Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia by H.R.H. The Duke of Cornwall and York, May 9, 1901, 1903 by Tom Roberts

Empire records

Magazine article by Kylie Scroope, 2011

Celebrates the centenary of the first national art collection, the Historic Memorials Collection, housed at Australia's Parliament House.

Why do painted portraits still matter?

Magazine article by Sandy Nairne, 2006

Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.

Reflections on portraiture

Magazine article by Andrew Sayers AM, 2004

An extract from the 2004 Nuala O'Flaaherty Memorial Lecture at the Queen Victoria Musuem and Art Gallery in Launceston in which Andrew Sayers reflects on the unique qualities of a portrait gallery.

Icons and imagery

Magazine article by Alison Weir, 2011

Alison Weir explores the National Portrait Gallery, London and the BP Portrait Award to find what makes a good painted portrait - past and present.

Poets' Portraits

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2005

The Portrait Gallery's paintings of two poets, Les Murray and Peter Porter, demonstrate two very different artists' responses to the challenge of representing more than usually sensitive and imaginative men.

Unheroic Materialism: little harmless fragments of memory and association: a portrait of Angus Trumble, 2019 Evert Ploeg

The last word

Magazine article by Dr David Hansen, 2022

David Hansen’s tribute to his close friend, prince of words and former National Portrait Gallery director, the late Angus Trumble.

M H Wednesday 11.15am from the series Self-harm, 2004

Big it up

Magazine article by Magda Keaney, 2005

Former National Portrait Gallery Curator Magda Keaney was a member of the selection panel of the Schwepes Photographic Portrait Prize 2004 at the National Portrait Gallery London.

The personal and the historical

Magazine article by Dr Frances Borzello, 2001

Where do we draw a line between the personal and the historical? Although she died in Melbourne in 1975, when I was not quite eleven years old, I have the vividest memories of my maternal grandmother Helen Borthwick.

Personal Politics

Dr Frances Borzello, British art historian and author discusses the uniqueness of women's self-portraits.

Portrait of an English Woman c. 1532-5 (detail)

A new perspective

Magazine article by Celina Fox, 2006

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.

Exhibition opening speech

Magazine article by Malcolm Robertson, 2011

Leo Schofield introduces the exhibition, Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores.

Miss Robertson of Colac (Dolly), 1885-86

Brothers on farms

Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.

The Saint and the merchant

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2010

Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.

Expect the unexpected

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2019

Joanna Gilmour revels in accidental artist Charles Rodius’ nineteenth century renderings of Indigenous peoples.

The story of us

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.

More cash than dash

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

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

Alexander Pearce
executed for murder
July 19th 1824

Public hanging

Magazine article by Michael Desmond, 2008

As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.

Brooke Lockett, Heidi Martin, Karen Nanasca, Halaina Hills; New York, 2012 Lisa Tomasetti

Dance like everyone’s watching

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2022

Penelope Grist’s spirits soar with Lisa Tomasetti’s Dancers in the Streets series.

Skyhooks (Red Symons, Bob Starkie, Shirley Strachan, Greg Macainsh, Freddie Strauks) in Parker’s studio, Fitzroy, 1975 David Parker

Cool cool world

Penelope Grist unpacks photographs by David Parker, who captured the phenomenal emergence of the 1970s and 80s Melbourne music scene.

Themes and variations (Annelies) A13, 1946

Listening to form

Magazine article by Jane Kinsman, 2007

National Gallery of Australia curator Jane Kinsman discusses the portraiture of Henri Matisse.

Desperately seeking Sonia

Magazine article by Angus Trumble, 2015

Esther Erlich’s portrait of Lady McMahon.

Small worlds

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Bess Norriss Tait created miniature watercolour portraits full of character and life.

Safe space

Magazine article by Amy Middleton, 2023

Amy Middleton on the power of portraiture in promoting inclusivity and connecting with intersectionality and diversity in all its forms.

Finest quality

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2010

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of Chinese-Australian businessman and philanthropist Quong Tart.

Naked nostalgia

Magazine article by Penelope Grist, 2016

Penelope Grist reminisces about the halcyon days of a print icon, before the infusion of the internet’s shades of grey.

Australians in Hollywood

Magazine article by Simon Elliott, 2003

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

Group photograph taken at the coronation of King George VI including Queen Elizabeth II, Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Queen Mother, 12 May 1937 by Hay Wrightson

Poise and Carats

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2015

I keep going back to Cartier: The Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia next door, and, within the exhibition, to Princess Marie Louise’s diamond, pearl and sapphire Indian tiara (1923), surely one of the most superb head ornaments ever conceived.

A real Pratt

The death of a gentlewoman is shrouded in mystery, a well-liked governor finds love after sorrow, and two upright men become entangled in the historical record.

Monument to Mrs. Moore St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool, Sydney

Waterloo and Mrs. Moore

Magazine article by The Hon. Dr Kevin Rudd, 2009

Beyond the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, a number of other notable anniversaries converge this year. Waterloo deserves a little focussed consideration, for in the decades following 1815 numerous Waterloo and Peninsular War veterans came to Australia.

An Australian story

In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.

Sunset in the drawing room at Chesney Wold by Hablot Knight Brown

Portraiture in a Bleak House

Magazine article by Karen Vickery, 2016

It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.

Diamond Doll

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

Miles from nowhere, 2008 (printed 2014) from the Games of consequence series 2008 Polixeni Papapetrou

Mother’s muse

Magazine article by Inga Walton, 2020

Inga Walton traces the poignant path of photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, revealed in the NGV’s summer retrospective.

A Family Being Served with Tea, ca. 1745 by an unknown artist

A reflection on conversation pieces

Magazine article by Karl James, 2016

There is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, an English painting, datable on the basis of costume to about 1745, that has for many years exercised my imagination.

Portrait of Private Edward Lello 1915 by Darge Photographic Company

Final frame

Karl James reflects on soldier portraiture during the Great War.

Their brilliant careers

Magazine article by Jenny Gall, 2017

Jenny Gall delves into Starstruck to celebrate some of Australian cinema’s iconic women.

The Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen KGAK GCMG GCVO KBE QC, 2006 by Rick Amor

Prima facie

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2019

Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.

Profile of a marriage

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2022

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the lives of Sir George Grey and his wife Eliza, the subjects of a pair of wax medallions in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

William Shakespeare, c. 1600-1610 associated with John Taylor

Take thy face hence

Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.

Mexico from the Palace painted by ‘Maximilian Emperor'

Empirical art

Magazine article by Diana O'Neil, 2017

Several years ago I came across this curious painting on the racks in a distant, dusty corner of the store room in the basement of the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. Since then the mystery surrounding it has never been far from my mind.

Revd Dr Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, c.1795 by Sir Henry Raeburn

Great Scots

Diana O’Neil samples the tartan treats on offer in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

‘Untitled’ - Yellow Kangaroo Paw, 2008 by Christian Thompson

The 'I' in Indigenous art

Magazine article by Jane Raffan, 2013

Jane Raffan examines unique styles of Indigenous portraiture that challenge traditional Western concepts of the artform.

Naked ambition

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2009

Joanna Gilmour dives into the life of Australian swimming legend Annette Kellerman.

Lauded legacy

Magazine article by Karl James, 2015

Karl James gives short shrift to doubts about the profile of General Sir John Monash.

Cultural kaleidoscope

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2013

The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.

Out of the shadows

Joanna Gilmour profiles the life and times of the shutter sisters May and Mina Moore.

Noel McKenna

Explore The Popular Pet Show

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.

Omai, Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, 1775-76

First encounters

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2011

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and David R. L. Litchfield at Villa Favorita, Lugano, Switzerland, 1989 © Nicola Graydo

The Thyssen Art Macabre

Books seldom make me angry but this one did. At first, I was powerfully struck by the uncanny parallels that existed between the Mellons of Pittsburgh and the Thyssens of the Ruhr through the same period, essentially the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Some prime ministers

Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.

Christmas Island

Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2018

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.

Material culture

The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.

Studio portrait of Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, 1914 by J Russell & Sons

All the way with K of K

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2016

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

Anangu landscape learning

Angus' initial perception of Uluru shifts, as he comes to see it as central to the entire order of Anangu life.

Less than six degrees of separation

Lecture, 28 May 2011