Christopher Chapman describes the art and life of Australian artist Richard Larter.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2008
Richard Larter (1929-2014) was born in London, where he encountered and was influenced by the new generation of young British Pop artists of the 1950s and early 1960s.
6 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002
Recorded 1965
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of R. Ian Lloyd 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2013
Patricia Larter (1936-1996) was born in the UK and arrived in Australia with her artist husband Richard Larter in 1962.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Richard Windeyer (1806-1847), journalist, barrister and politician, was the eldest of the ten children born to Charles Windeyer and his wife Ann Mary and remained in England when the rest of his family went to New South Wales.
3 portraits in the collection
Richard Walley OAM (b. 1953) is a former Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Howe (1st Earl Howe, 1726–1799), naval commander, served in the Royal Navy for over fifty years, seeing action in the Seven Years War, the American Wars of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Bonynge AO CBE (b. 1930), conductor, won a scholarship to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music when he was twelve.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Richard Bell (b. 1953), an artist of Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) and Anglo-Celtic heritage, has described himself as an 'inactivist who kicked the habit'.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Humphry AO (b. 1939) was the managing director and CEO of Australian Stock Exchange Ltd from 1994 to 2004, during which period, in 1998, the ASX became the first exchange in the world to simultaneously demutualise and list on its own exchange.
1 portrait in the collection
Failing as a prospector, Richard Daintree (1832-1878) started work as an assistant geologist in 1854, and returned to London to study assaying and metallurgy; while abroad, he became interested in photography.
2 portraits in the collection
Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892), naturalist, anatomist and palaeontologist, was born in Lancaster and apprenticed to surgeon-apothecaries there before completing his studies in medicine in Edinburgh and London.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Rouse (1774-1852), grazier and landowner, came to New South Wales in 1801 as a free settler with his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772-1849) and the first two of their nine children.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Pratt (1934-2009), businessman, came to Australia with his parents, Polish Jews, in 1938.
2 portraits in the collection
![A Wool Merchant "Colonial John Bull" [Mr Richard Goldsbrough] from the series "Masks and Faces", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times](/files/e/6/3/e/i9665-slq.jpg "A Wool Merchant \"Colonial John Bull\" [Mr Richard Goldsbrough] from the series \"Masks and Faces\", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times")
Richard Goldsbrough (1821–1886) was a butcher’s son from Shipley, Yorkshire, who became a leading Australian woolbroker.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Tognetti ao (b. 1965), violinist, conductor and composer, trained with William Primrose in Wollongong and Alice Waten in Sydney before undertaking further studies with Igor Ozim in Switzerland.
2 portraits in the collection
Richard Fitzgerald (1772-1840), convict, public servant and settler, spent four years of his seven-year sentence imprisoned (probably on a floating 'hulk') at Portsmouth before arriving in Sydney in 1791, along with his private assets.
1 portrait in the collection
Richard Roxburgh (b. 1962), actor, completed an economics degree at the Australian National University before gaining a place at NIDA on his second attempt.
2 portraits in the collection
Frà Professor Richard Divall AO OBE (1945–2017), conductor, composer and scholar, grew up in Manly and was educated at Manly Boys’ High School.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Australian Securities Exchange 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
Richard Read junior arrived in Sydney from his native London in November 1819.
2 portraits in the collection
Richard Edward O'Connor (1851-1912), barrister and judge, was raised and educated in Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Poet Richard Henry Horne (1802–1884) arrived in Melbourne in 1852 hoping to make money on the goldfields but ended up instead in a variety of less remunerative prospects.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
A design diary retrospective.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Marion McBeath Harper 2019
American photographer Richard Avedon produced portrait photographs that defined the twentieth century. Developed in partnership with the Richard Avedon Foundation in New York, the first Australian exhibition of Avedon’s bold portraits reveals the glamour and drama of his iconic artistic work.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir Richard Kingsland AO CBE DFC and Lady Kingsland 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard and Birgit Woolcott 2007
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Richard Divall AO OBE 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift in memory of Richard Kelynack Evans 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Neil Archibald and Alan R. Dodge AM, Brandon and Angela Munro, Dr Walter Ong and Graeme Marshall 2015
Richard Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey of Berwick, Victoria and the City of Westminster KG GCMG CH (1890-1976), politician and statesman, was born in Brisbane and educated in Melbourne and at Cambridge.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Peter Weiss AO 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Woldendorp AM 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Leslie Walford AM 2013
Dr Christopher Chapman explores how we can understand Richard Avedon's photographs.
Stephen Zagala discusses Richard Avedon’s work from an Australian perspective.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
![A Wool Merchant "Colonial John Bull" [Mr Richard Goldsbrough] from the series "Masks and Faces", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times](/files/e/6/3/e/i9665-sl.jpg "A Wool Merchant \"Colonial John Bull\" [Mr Richard Goldsbrough] from the series \"Masks and Faces\", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times")
![A Wool Merchant "Colonial John Bull" [Mr Richard Goldsbrough] from the series "Masks and Faces", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times](/files/e/6/3/e/i9665-ths.jpg "A Wool Merchant \"Colonial John Bull\" [Mr Richard Goldsbrough] from the series \"Masks and Faces\", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times")
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Eleanor Thorton 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2018
![A Low Comedian. "Keep your eye on your Father" [Henry Richard Harwood] from the series "Masks and Faces", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times](/files/1/2/2/d/i13474-sl.jpg "A Low Comedian. \"Keep your eye on your Father\" [Henry Richard Harwood] from the series \"Masks and Faces\", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times")
![A Low Comedian. "Keep your eye on your Father" [Henry Richard Harwood] from the series "Masks and Faces", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times](/files/1/2/2/d/i13474-ths.jpg "A Low Comedian. \"Keep your eye on your Father\" [Henry Richard Harwood] from the series \"Masks and Faces\", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times")
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Eric Harding and Athol Hawke 2002
Family affections are preserved in a fine selection of intimate portraits.
Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
Partners in sparkle
This issue of Portrait Magazine includes William Bligh, Lionel Rose, Richard Larter, Layne Beachley, William Yang and more.
Press releases and images downloads for media.
A new commissioned portrait funded by the Gallery’s Foundation will be launched at Murdoch University in Perth tonight, Wednesday 2 September.
Hi-resolution images for media representatives, password required.
Commissioned with funds provided by Peter Weiss AO 2018
This resource has strong connections with the Australian Curriculum and is designed primarily for upper secondary school teachers of Visual Arts, English, History and Theory of Knowledge.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Hi-resolution images for media representatives, password required.
Elizabeth Henrietta Fitzgerald (née Rouse, 1818–1863) was born at Rouse Hill, New South Wales, the youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.
1 portrait in the collection
This issue features Richard Avedon, Tracey Moffatt, Indigenous portraiture, William Kentridge, roller derby and more.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Elliott 2016
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Elliott
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Elliott
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Elliott
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Elliott 2016
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Elliott 2016
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift in memory of Richard Kelynack Evans 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Wherrett 1998
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818-1866), actor, was a seasoned theatre performer by his early teens; at fourteen, he played Richard III.
1 portrait in the collection
John Bell AO OBE (b. 1940), actor and director, is one of Australia's best-known theatre personalities.
3 portraits in the collection
Office romance
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Maria Windeyer (née Camfield, 1795–1878), landowner, emigrated to New South Wales in 1835 with her husband Richard, a barrister, and their infant son, William Charles.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006
Little is known of John Chapman, who engraved fine allegorical subjects after the designs of J Smith and Richard Corbould and worked closely with Thomas Macklin on his Shakespeare series.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Barry Sullivan (1821-1891), English actor, performed on the Melbourne stage between 1862 and 1866.
1 portrait in the collection
Elizabeth Rouse (née Adams, 1772–1849), colonial spouse, arrived in New South Wales as a free settler in 1801 with her husband, Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and their first two children, one of whom had been born on the voyage out.
1 portrait in the collection
Anthony Cardon, born in Flanders, moved to London as a twenty year old and attended the Royal Academy schools.
2 portraits in the collection
Fanny Lee (1832–1905) was the only daughter of colonial landowner John Richard Tindale and his wife Mary (whose portraits by Maurice Felton are displayed nearby).
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 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.
Martin Sharp (1942-2013), printmaker, painter, cartoonist, designer, songwriter and film-maker, is one of Australia's foremost pop artists.
7 portraits in the collection
A major new exhibition celebrating love in all its guises. Opening 20 March 2021.
TERROIR directors Gerard Reinmuth, Scott Balmforth and Richard Blythe believe that the practice of architecture is the production of knowledge.
For the first hundred years or so of its existence, The National Portrait Gallery in London had no contemporary collection at all
William Westall (1781-1850), grew up in London and was taught to draw by his elder half-brother Richard, who was drawing master to Princess Victoria.
1 portrait in the collection
Mary Hassall (nee Rouse), the eldest of Richard and Elizabeth's children, was born in England and made the sea journey to New South Wales as an infant.
2 portraits in the collection
Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.
Eleanor Wingate (née Rouse, 1813–1898) was the second youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.
1 portrait in the collection
To celebrate the new exhibition Australian Love Stories, renowned Australian glass artist Harriet Schwarzrock has been commissioned to make a large-scale installation reflecting on the role the heart plays as our emotional centre.
John Young, mezzotint engraver, studied under Valentine Green then worked with several of the painters who collaborated with Green, notably Benjamin West, John Hoppner and Johann Gerhard Huck.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)
Jim Anderson was born in England, his family moving to Australia when he was one year old.
1 portrait in the collection
Gary Grealy (b. 1950) has established himself over many years as one of Sydney’s leading commercial and portrait photographers with work commissioned by leading advertising agencies and major national and international clients.
11 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of William Bowmore AO OBE 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.
Australia’s passion for rock ‘n roll was kindled by American and British acts in the 1950s and 60s. The novel genre’s driving, licentious rhythms and voices captured imaginations and libidos, not to mention aspiring young musicians.
Noah Taylor (b. 1969) left school at 16 to join Melbourne's St Martin's Youth Theatre.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Courtesy of the Tait family
Tim Winton is a West Australian author who has several times been listed for the Booker Prize.
2 portraits in the collection
Mick Molloy (b. 1966) is an actor, writer and producer who has maintained a high profile in Australian commercial television and radio since the late 1980s.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir Richard Kingsland AO CBE DFC 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Antoine Fauchery (1823–1861) was a Parisian artist and writer, an occasional collaborator with Henri Murger, author of Scènes de la vie de bohème which was a chief source of the opera La bohème.
2 portraits in the collection
The café is open 9:00am-3:30pm every day. The shop is open 10:00am to 5:00pm every day.
Rolf de Heer (b. 1951) was born in Heemskerk, Holland, and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), acknowledged as one of the world's great portraitists, was master of portraits in the 'Grand Manner', replete with moral and heroic symbolism.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Due 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
John Kaldor, textile designer and manufacturer, was born in Hungary. He came to Australia with his family in 1948.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
As the first National Portrait Gallery travelling exhibition, The reflecting eye: portraits of Australian visual artists represents an important milestone in the history of Australia's National Portrait Gallery.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Andrew Mezei (b. 1963) was born to Hungarian refugee parents in Melbourne and grew up in their leather-goods workshop, observing their adherence to a tradition of fine European craftsmanship.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Sir Cecil Colville (1891-1984), medical practitioner, was the first president of the Australian Medical Association.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
The novelist Colleen McCullough (1937–2015) was born in Wellington, New South Wales.
1 portrait in the collection
POL was a magazine that ran from 1969 to 1986
Jill Neville (1932-1997), writer and critic, grew up in Sydney and attended a Blue Mountains boarding school.
1 portrait in the collection
Bridget Elliot (b. 1958), photographer, is acknowledged for her significant portraits of Australian composers and musical performers.
1 portrait in the collection
Bill Leak (1956-2017), portrait painter and caricaturist, trained at the Julian Ashton art school in the mid-1970s, and began his career painting landscapes.
7 portraits in the collection
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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
Sir James Gobbo AC CVO QC (b. 1931) is a former Governor of Victoria, Lieutenant Governor of Victoria and Victorian Supreme Court judge.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Sir Francis Forbes (1784–1841) was the first chief justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Magda Keaney examines the 123 Faces project by Simon Obarzanek.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2009
Mary Anne Egan (also Marianne or Marian, née Cheers, 1818–1857), was born in Sydney, the daughter of ex-convicts.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Polly Borland, born in Melbourne in 1959, began her photographic career in Australia before moving to London in 1989.
11 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mercy Health and Aged Care 2006
Antonia Blaxland (1929-1989), photographer, was the great-great granddaughter of Gregory Blaxland, leader of the successful Blue Mountains expedition in 1813.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of J.B. Windeyer 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard King 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
We fix adolescence as the time of inner turmoil, private worlds and secret refuges, doubt and imagination, protest and liberation. The human mind and body never really leaves this state of transition.
Dame Joan Sutherland (1926–2010) was one of the world’s greatest operatic divas.
3 portraits in the collection
Australian photographer Karin Catt has photographed world leaders, a host of rock stars and Oscar-winning compatriots Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, and Cate Blanchett.
Adapted from A Tribute to William Dobell an exhibition presented by the Australian National University's Drill Hall Gallery in association with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, The National Gallery of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial. Dobell is of course, celebrated for his achievements in portraiture, winning the Archibald prize (1943, 1948 and 1959), the Wynne Prize (1948), and representing Australia at the 1954 Venice Biennale. Curator Mary Eagle concludes her essay in the catalogue of the exhibition thus, "Overall I see a dissonance in Dobell’s art and life
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tom Uren's family 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Alana Landsberry and Bauer Media Australia 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Geoff Dyer (1947-2020) was renowned landscape and portrait painter whose practice depicted Tasmania and its people.
1 portrait in the collection
In 1988 philanthropists Gordon and Marilyn Darling decided to make an Australian portrait gallery a reality, overseeing the development of the 1992 touring exhibition Uncommon Australians.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Dame Margaret Scott AC DBE (1922-2019) ballerina and teacher, was scarred by her education in a Johannesburg convent boarding school and left her home on a Swaziland farm in 1939.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Alana Landsberry and Bauer Media Australia 2019
Robert Whitaker, English photographer, spent three years in Melbourne in the early 1960s, becoming friends with Mirka and Georges Mora, Barry Humphries, Germaine Greer, the Heide crowd and Martin Sharp and Richard Neville.
1 portrait in the collection
Barry Tuckwell AC OBE (1931-2020), horn soloist, conductor, teacher and author spent his early years in Melbourne, where he learned a variety of instruments including piano and violin.
1 portrait in the collection
Thousand mile stare provides a unique portrait of people of rural Australia
George Spartels (b. 1954), actor, composer, musician and presenter, was a host on the ABC television children’s program Play School from 1985 to 1999.
1 portrait in the collection
Peter Goldsworthy AM (b. 1951), medical doctor and writer, was born in Minlaton, South Australia, and grew up in various country towns as his father, a school teacher, moved for work.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Windeyer family 2009
Jeanne Pratt AC (b. c. 1936), born to Jewish parents in Poland before the war, came to Australia as a three year old.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2019
Ross Edwards (b. 1943), composer, became determined upon a life of composition as a child.
1 portrait in the collection
Ethel Marian (Maie) Casey AC, Baroness Casey (1892-1983), chatelaine, artist, pilot and author, was born in Melbourne, the daughter of the Surgeon General, Sir Charles Ryan.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
Claude Charlick (life dates unknown), businessman, was managing director of the Adelaide firm Charlick Ltd for nearly forty years.
1 portrait in the collection
Jack Thompson AM (b. 1940), actor, worked as a jackeroo, served in the Army and studied at the University of Queensland before deciding to pursue an acting career.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of David Tuckwell 2018
Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry
James Richard Vickery OBE (1902-1997), food scientist, saw the field of his life’s research grow from non-existence to world recognition.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Richard Brian Close, Githabul Tribe, Woodenbong 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Martin Sharp fulfils the Pop art idiom of merging art and life.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the CSIRO Agriculture and Food Division 2017
Michael Kimmelman, Chief Art Critic of The New York Times and author of Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere, presented the National Portrait Gallery Third Anniversary Lecture on 2 March 2002. He was generously brought to Australia by the Gordon Darling Foundation and Qantas.
Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
The design concepts behind the new National Portrait Gallery building in Canberra.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
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.
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled twenty new portrait commissions of Australian leaders and individualists as part of its twentieth birthday celebrations in a new exhibition, 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.
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.
Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
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.
Percy Leason, artist, illustrator and cartoonist, grew up in Victoria's Wimmera region and trained in the rudiments of art in Nhill.
1 portrait in the collection
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.
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.
Lee Tulloch remembers her great friend NIDA-trained actor turned photographer Stuart Campbell.
A photographic portrait by Kerry Dundas captures the contemplative mind of visionary painter Godfrey Miller.
A National Portrait Gallery, London exhibition redefines portraiture, shifting the focus towards a new perspective on Pop Art.
Lauren Dalla examines the life of Australian painter Roy de Maistre and his portrait by Jean Shepeard.
Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.
Commissioned with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AO and Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018.
Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.
Natural light and human proportions – the design by Johnson Pilton Walker
National Photographic Portrait Prize judge Christopher Chapman connects this year’s entries to iconic contemporary american photographers.
Dr Christopher Chapman, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2015 Prize.
Artist David M Thomas lists some of the ideas and influences behind his video portraits.
Australian photographer Karin Catt has shot across the spectrum of celebrity, her subjects including rock stars, world leaders and actors.
Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.
Dr Christopher Chapman describes the experimental exhibition Portraits + Architecture
Magda Keaney speaks with Lewis Morley about his photographic career and the major retrospective of his work on display at the NPG.
Penelope Grist speaks to Bill Henson and Simone Young to discover the origins of the artist’s stunning photographic triptych.
![A Goldfields Member "The Dove of Ararat" [The Hon. William McLellan M.L.A] from the series "Masks and Faces", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times](/files/d/d/f/e/i9660-slq.jpg "A Goldfields Member \"The Dove of Ararat\" [The Hon. William McLellan M.L.A] from the series \"Masks and Faces\", 1874 Tom Durkin, The Weekly Times")
Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.
Joanna Gilmour, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2013 Prize.
Joanna Gilmour on the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2013.
Robert Hannaford has completed around 400 portraits over the span of his career.
Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.
Alistair McGhie reminisces about three Australian rugby greats commissioned for the Portrait Gallery collection by Patrick Corrigan AM.
Penelope Grist’s spirits soar with Lisa Tomasetti’s Dancers in the Streets series.
Jaynie Anderson reflects on her experience as sitter for Reshid Bey’s 1962 portrait.
Australia's former Cultural Attache to the USA, Ron Ramsey, describes the mood at the opening week of the revitalised American National Portrait Gallery.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
'Artist and actors, advancing spasmodically, find their rhythm together' writes Sarah Engledow.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.
Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.
Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.
Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
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.
Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.
Jane Raffan investigates auction sales of self portraits nationally and internationally.
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.
Aimee Board reveals method, motivation and mortality in the portraiture of Rod McNicol.
The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825.
Joanna Gilmour explores photographic depictions of Aboriginal sportsmen including Lionel Rose, Dave Sands, Jerry Jerome and Douglas Nicholls.
A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.
Over the years the young Nicholas Harding got his hands on various mice and guinea pigs, but they served mainly to illustrate the concept of mortality.
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.
Dr Sarah Engledow, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2017 Prize.
The Rajah Quilt’s narrative promptings are as intriguing as the textile is intricate.
Sarah Engledow looks at three decades of Nicholas Harding's portraiture.
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