Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd (1919-1971), was born and educated in Melbourne, and a member of the famous Australian family of artists and writers.
1 portrait in the collection
Recorded 1962
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Sir Roderick Carnegie 2003
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Anne Boyd AM (b. 1946), composer and teacher, was born in Sydney and studied composition with Peter Sculthorpe at the University of Sydney before earning a PhD at the University of York.
1 portrait in the collection
Arthur Boyd AC OBE (1920–1999), painter, potter and printmaker, was one of Australia’s greatest artists.
15 portraits in the collection
Boyd’s self-portrait at age 25 is joined by his equally emotive portraits of those around him.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2014
Recorded 1969
Recorded 1965
Gift of Denis Savill 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a focus exhibition of captivating portraits by renowned artist Arthur Boyd, titled Mysterious eyes: Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
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
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Alan Boxer 2014
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Purchased 1998
Patrick McCaughey explores a striking Boyd self portrait.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of an anonymous donor 2002
On loan from the Clark family
Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.
Robin Smith grew up in rural New Zealand, and studied arts and fine arts at Canterbury University before beginning to write and illustrate adventure and natural history stories.
1 portrait in the collection
Robin Sellick (b. 1967), photographer, is well known for his distinctive portraits of Australian actors, musicians, politicians and athletes.
17 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Purchased 2021
An interview with photographer Robin Sellick about his portrait of golfing champion Adam Scott.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
Gift of the artist 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Robin Sellick captured a rare moment of quietude from the late conservation star Steve Irwin.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2000
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Robin Sellick's portraits of Australian sportspeople include Harry Kewell, Adam Scott, Shane Warne, Mark Webber and John Newcombe.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Robin Eley studied Fine Arts at Westmont College, USA and began his career as a professional illustrator. Eley was a finalist in the Eutick Memorial Still Life Prize in 2010 and his work was Highly Commended in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 2010 and 2011.
An open house, recollections of my early life: extracts from the reminiscences of David Boyd.
This is the first in a series of National Portrait Gallery exhibitions to survey the portraits painted by artists who are not thought of, primarily, as portrait painters
Christopher Chapman looks at influences and insight in the formative years of Arthur Boyd.
Sir Roy Grounds (1905-1981) was one of Australia's leading modernist architects.
2 portraits in the collection
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
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Sean Godsell (b. 1960) a Melbourne-based architect, is known internationally for his distinctive residential architecture.
1 portrait in the collection
Brenda Niall AO (b. 1930), writer, academic and reviewer, is one of Australia's foremost biographers.
1 portrait in the collection
John Perceval AO (1923-2000) was a painter and ceramic artist. Early on, along with Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker, he was part of a loose group of largely self-taught Australian artists, now known as the Angry Penguins, who rebelled against the conservatism of the art establishment.
10 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001
This issue features Jude Rae, Arthur Boyd, Darren McDonald, John Singer Sargent, Tom Wills the 'inventor' of Australian Rules Football and more.
Carl Cooper (1912-1966), ceramic decorator, contracted poliomyelitis in his twenties.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Robin MacQueen 2007
Mark Strizic (1928-2012) was born in Berlin and migrated to Australia via Croatia in 1950.
12 portraits in the collection
The exhibition features work from Jan Nelson, Natasha Bieniek, Patricia Piccinini, Juan Ford, Petrina Hicks, Ron Mueck, Yanni Floros, Sam Jinks, Michael Peck and Robin Eley.
Canberran and modernist art collector Alan Boxer has generously bequeathed two works by artists Arthur Boyd and Jenny Sages to the National Portrait Gallery.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Mark Strizic's work crosses a broad spectrum of photographic fields including urban, industrial, commercial, and architectural photography.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2015
Alan Boxer, public servant, academic and art collector, was schooled in Melbourne and gained his economic qualifications in Melbourne and Oxford.
Tim Burstall (1927-2004) set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
2 portraits in the collection
Finalist, MDPA 2014
The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.
Segregated from their fellow humans in cellophane prisons, reference points are removed, so it is not certain whether these naked figures could be unwrapped, are about to be subsumed, or will forever be suspended in a plastic stasis.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007
David Warren graduated from RMIT in 1964, after which he taught for some twenty years at the Prahran School of Art, RMIT and Ballarat CAE.
1 portrait in the collection
This exhibition traces the creative output of nearly 50 years by one of Australia's landmark living photographers.
Known as the 'Kings of Disco', The Bee Gees have sold over 120 million records worldwide and are among the highest-selling musical artists in history.
1 portrait in the collection
Barry Walsh (b. 1951) is a painter, photographer and printmaker who has studied in Italy and France and has exhibited since the early '80s in Europe as well as Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Experience the art of rock music; attend to the neglected aspects of Lord Kitchener's work; and say farewell to the inimitable Bob Ellis.
Joy Hester (1920-1960) was the only female member of the Angry Penguin movement, which included artists Tucker, Sydney Nolan and Arthur Boyd.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
In the flesh is an enthralling and immersive experience of contemporary art that confronts the concept of humanness and the experiences of consciousness and emotion. Featuring ten Australian artists including Jan Nelson, Patricia Piccinini, Ron Mueck and Michael Peck, the exhibition explores themes of intimacy, empathy, transience, transition, vulnerability, alienation, restlessness, reflection, mortality and acceptance.
Press releases and image downloads for media.
Childhood sweethearts
Ursula Hoff AO OBE (1909–2005) was a curator, art historian and academic.
1 portrait in the collection
Errol Flynn (1909-1959), actor, was born in Hobart, where his father was a biology lecturer, and spent his childhood in Tasmania, England and Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Rudy Komon (1908-1982) was an art dealer and gallery director. After working as a journalist in Czechoslovakia, where he served with the Czech resistance during the war, he emigrated to Sydney and opened an antique store.
3 portraits in the collection
Harold 'Hal' Hattam (1913-1994), doctor, artist and art collector, came to Australia from his native Scotland at the age of seven.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Hattam family in memory of Hal and Kate Hattam 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
From 1967 until 1981 Matthew Perceval lived and painted in France and during those years produced a large body of portrait paintings.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Dr Christopher Chapman explores how we can understand Richard Avedon's photographs.
Barry Gibb (b. 1946) and twins Robin (b. 1949) and Maurice Gibb (1949-2003), were the brothers comprising the band The Bee Gees.
1 portrait in the collection
Robin Nevin AO (b. 1942), actor, director and theatre administrator, is the artistic director and chief executive officer of the Sydney Theatre Company.
1 portrait in the collection
Ray Crooke AM grew up in Melbourne, where after army service in WA, North Queensland and Borneo, he trained at Swinburne Tech from 1946 to 1948.
3 portraits in the collection
Elle Macpherson (b. 1964) is an entrepreneur, model, actor and television host.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Purchased 2009
Purchased 2001
Basil Hetzel AC (1922-2017), medical scientist, came to South Australia as a three year old and was educated - like Nobel Prize winners William Lawrence Bragg, Howard Florey and Robin Warren - at St Peter's College and the University of Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
Wes Walters (1928-2014), painter, studied architecture in Geelong and art at the Ballarat School of Mines before embarking on a successful career as a freelance commercial artist in 1950.
3 portraits in the collection
Russell Crowe (b. 1964), actor, was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He moved at the age of four to Australia, where his parents worked as caterers on TV and movie sets.
2 portraits in the collection
Klaus Friedeberger (1922-2019) fled Germany for England at the age of sixteen, and the next year found himself on the Dunera bound for internment in Australia.
1 portrait in the collection
Kathleen 'Kate' Hattam (1923–2004), stylesetter and art collector, was born in London and served with the Women’s Royal Air Force during the Second World War, stationed in radar at Beachey Head.
1 portrait in the collection
Patrick Ryan (d. 1990) and Tim Burstall set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Barbara Blackman 2009
Introduction The National Portrait Gallery’s photographic exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus explores various interpretations of Australian sporting men and women.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Mrs Diana Ramsay AO 2008
Barbara Blackman AO (b. 1928), writer, poet and arts patron, was only fifteen when the ABC Weekly published one of her poems.
5 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Philippe Mora (b. 1949), filmmaker, artist and writer, is the eldest son of artist Mirka Mora and restauranteur and gallery owner Georges Mora.
1 portrait 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.
The exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus offers various interpretations of sporting men and women by five Australian photographers.
Gift of the artist 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Jim and Barbara Higgins, Sir Roderick Carnegie AC, Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer, Louise and Martyn Myer Foundation, Peter and Ruth McMullin, Diana Carlton, Professor Derek Denton AC, Harold Mitchell AC, Peter Jopling AM QC, Andrew and Liz Mackenzie, Patricia Patten, Tamie Fraser AO, Bruce Parncutt and Robin Campbell, Lauraine Diggins, Steven Skala AO and Lousje Skala 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Danila Vassilieff, born in Russia, arrived in Australia in the early 1920s having served in a Cossack cavalry regiment, been captured by Communist forces and escaped via Persia and India to China.
1 portrait in the collection
Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
Polly Borland: Australians, is an exhibition of 54 new portraits of significant Australians who have made a contribution to British life and who have largely made their home or based their professional life in the UK
Dame Annie Florence Cardell-Oliver DBE (1876–1965), politician, grew up in Melbourne before marrying David Sykes Boyd, a wool buyer, and returning with him to England.
1 portrait in the collection
In the flesh is realised through moments of intimacy, empathy, transitions in life and the transience of life, vulnerability, alienation, restlessness, self-reflection, mortality and acceptance.
Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
The Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) was established in 1976, following two years of planning and research on the part of its founding patrons, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Lady Joyce Delacombe.
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.
Andrew Sayers AM (1957–2015) was inaugural Director of the National Portrait Gallery.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013
Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.
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.
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.
Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.
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.
Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry
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.
Celebrate the Gallery’s 20th birthday summer with Electric! Portraits that pop! The collection exhibition features a mix of bright, bold and colourful paintings, prints and photographs, and buoyant video portraits.
The wild balancing act of McDonald’s home décor (is that there as a joke? where do I actually sit down? is this ironic or what? what a lovely photo of Darren and Robin in Europe!) is reflected in his own personality.
Rennie Ellis: Aussies All is a celebration of the life and work of the late Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.
This exhibition offers a comprehensive display of Clifton Pugh's portraits revealing his development and growth from tonal paintings to a unique style that was in demand from politicians, artists, academics and Australian personalities.
The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
Drawn from the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Face the Music explores the remarkable talents and achievements of Australian musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities associated with the music industry.
Deborah Hill talks figures with character, as the National Portrait Gallery touring exhibitions program welcomes its millionth visitor.
Gael Newton looks at Australian photography, film and the sixties through the novel lens of Mark Strizic.
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.
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.
A pair of portraits by John Brack; Portrait of Kym Bonython and Portrait of Mr Bonython's speedway cap combine to create a quirky depiction of their subject.
Penelope Grist finds philanthropy and fashion underpin the story of Susan Wakil AO.
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.
Andrew Sayers feels the warmth in the paintings Matthew Perceval made while the sun shone in southern France.
The Chairman, Board, Director and staff mourn the loss of the National Portrait Gallery's inaugural director.
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.
Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.
Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.
Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.
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.
Robyn's parents had two terriers, Wuff and Snuff. In spite of Snuff’s ominous name and a couple of close shaves – once, he jumped out of a moving car, and another time, on a long road trip, he was accidentally left behind at a petrol station – he outlived Wuff.
One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.
English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.
The photographs from Matthew Sleeth's tour of duty series look more like advertisements than images of war.
Penelope Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2020 Prize.
Michael Desmond discusses Fred Williams' portraits of friends, artist Clifton Pugh, David Aspden and writer Stephen Murray-Smith, and the stylistic connections between his portraits and landscapes.
An exhibition of humanness in ten themes by Penelope Grist.
Diana Warnes explores the lives of Hal and Katherine 'Kate' Hattam through their portraits painted by Fred Williams and Clifton Pugh.
The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.
Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, photographers and conservationists, shared a love of photography and exploring wilderness areas of Tasmania.
Robyn Sweaney's quiet Violet obsession.
Dr Anne Sanders NPG Curatorial Researcher investigated the lives of the pioneering psychologists whose portraits are featured in Inner Worlds.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
Karen Vickery delights in a thespian thread of the Australian yarn.
Jennifer Coombes explores the lush images of Picnic at Hanging Rock, featuring Anne-Louise Lambert’s Miranda, the face of the film.
Jean Appleton’s 1965 self portrait makes a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection writes Joanna Gilmour.
Lesley Harding, Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne explores Albert Tucker’s experience of World War II, his interests in the intersection between psychology and creativity, and their influence on his portrait making.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be
Dr Christopher Chapman NPG Curator of Inner Worlds explains the development of an exhibition that spans from Surrealism to contemporary art.
