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

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Search / sidney myer

People

Sidney Myer

Biography

Sidney Myer (1878-1934), retail magnate and philanthropist, arrived in Melbourne in 1898 as a penniless Russian immigrant named Simca Baevski.

1 portrait in the collection

Kenneth Baillieu Myer DSC AC

Biography

Kenneth Baillieu Myer DSC AC (1921- 1992) was a businessman and philanthropist.

1 portrait in the collection

Study for a portrait of Dame Merlyn Myer DBE

Dame Margery Merlyn Baillieu Myer DBE

Biography

Dame Margery Merlyn Baillieu Myer DBE (1900–1982), philanthropist and fundraiser, was the daughter of a hotelier, George Baillieu.

1 portrait in the collection

Sidney Nolan

Biography

Sir Sidney Nolan AC OM CBE (1917–1992) was one of the most original and inventive Australian artists of the postwar decades, and one of few Australian artists to achieve an international reputation in the twentieth century.

7 portraits in the collection

Sir Sidney Kidman

Biography

Sir Sidney Kidman, pastoralist (1857-1935), is Australia's 'cattle king'.

2 portraits in the collection

Sidney Riley Studios

Biography

Sidney Riley Studios operated concurrently at several Sydney locations (Balmain, Rozelle, Pitt St., Sydney, Marrickville & Chatswood), and in Brisbane, between 1911 and 1954.

1 portrait in the collection

Neilma B. Gantner

Biography

Neilma Baillieu Gantner (1922–2015), writer and philanthropist, was the second child of Melbourne retailer Sidney Myer and his wife Merlyn (née Baillieu).

1 portrait in the collection

Howard Matthews

Biography

Part of the Melbourne intellectual avant-garde of the 1940s, Howard Matthews was a brilliant student.

1 portrait in the collection

David Campbell

Biography

David Campbell (1952–1984) decided to become an artist while a student at Erina High on the New South Wales Central Coast.

3 portraits in the collection

Joy Hester

Biography

Joy Hester (1920-1960) was the only female member of the Angry Penguin movement, which included artists Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd.

1 portrait in the collection

Paul Montford

Biography

Paul Montford came to Australia from England in 1921, attracted by the light, which he believed to be conducive to monumental sculpture.

2 portraits in the collection

Judith Durham AO

Biography

The Seekers formed in Melbourne in 1962 when jazz singer Judith Durham met Athol Guy, who was in a folk trio with Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger.

3 portraits in the collection

Livingston Hopkins

Biography

Livingston Hopkins, cartoonist, was born in Ohio and fought in the American Civil War before beginning his cartooning career in New York.

3 portraits in the collection

Sir George Coles KT CBE

Biography

Sir George Coles CBE (1885–1977) was the founder of the retail concern GJ Coles and Coy.

1 portrait in the collection

Rudy Komon

Biography

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

Adrian Lawlor

Biography

Adrian Lawlor, critic and artist, came to Australia from his native England at the age of about twenty.

2 portraits in the collection

Paul Newton

Biography

Paul Newton (b. 1961), is a Sydney-based portrait painter noted for his ability to capture likeness and sensibility.

6 portraits in the collection

Bruce Dawe

Biography

Bruce Dawe AO (1930-2020), poet and teacher, was born in Fitzroy and worked as a labourer, clerk, sawmill hand, farmhand and postman before joining the RAAF in 1959.

1 portrait in the collection

Thomas Purves

Biography

Thomas Purves (1909-1969), known as Tam, founded the Australian Galleries in Smith Street, Collingwood, Melbourne with his wife Anne in 1956.

1 portrait in the collection

Sketch of Clifton Pugh painting John Perceval

John Perceval AO

Biography

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

Jinx Nolan

Biography

Jinx Nolan (b. 1941), artist, is the daughter of writer Cynthia Reed and the adopted daughter of Sidney Nolan, whom Reed married in 1948.

1 portrait in the collection

Dame Helen Blaxland DBE

Biography

Dame Helen Blaxland DBE (1907–1989), conservationist and fundraiser, studied at the Julian Ashton School of Art in Sydney.

1 portrait in the collection

James Mollison AO

Biography

James Mollison AO (1931–2020) was the inaugural director of the National Gallery of Australia.

2 portraits in the collection

Klaus Friedeberger

Biography

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.

3 portraits in the collection

Dr Julie Dowling

Biography

Julie Dowling, an artist of Badimaya, Irish and Scottish Catholic heritage, was born in Subiaco, Western Australia and grew up in nearby urban and semi-rural areas.

2 portraits in the collection

Wilfred John Peisley

Biography

Wilfrid John Peisley, born in Bathurst, won a number of prizes at regional shows before gaining a scholarship to the East Sydney Technical College at the age of seventeen.

1 portrait in the collection

James Houston

Biography

Scoring first prize in New South Wales for Art in the 1983 HSC was a signal that a talented creative career lay ahead and this has indeed proven the case.

2 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke (Sass & Bide)

Sarah-Jane Clarke AM

Biography

Sarah-Jane 'Sass' Clarke AM (b. 1974) and Heidi 'Bide' Middleton AM (b.

1 portrait in the collection

Heidi Middleton

Biography

Heidi 'Bide' Middleton AM (b. 1971) and Sarah-Jane 'Sass' Clarke AM (b.

1 portrait in the collection

Ruby Hunter

Biography

Ruby Hunter (1955-2010), singer/songwriter, was a Ngarrindjeri/ Kukatha/ Pitjantjatjara woman from South Australia.

1 portrait in the collection

Charles Haddon Chambers

Biography

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

1 portrait in the collection

Donald Friend

Biography

Donald Friend (1915-1989), painter, writer and diarist, studied at the RAS and Dattilo-Rubbo’s school in Sydney before spending 1935 and 1936 at the Westminster School in London.

2 portraits in the collection

Geoffrey Tozer

Biography

Geoffrey Tozer (1954-2009), pianist, achieved national fame as a child prodigy in the 1960s.

1 portrait in the collection

R. M. Williams AO CMG

Biography

RM (Reginald Murray) Williams AO CBE (1908-2003), saddlery, boot and clothing manufacturer, miner and author, moved to Adelaide from his birthplace near the Flinders Rangers when he was 10.

1 portrait in the collection

Ethel Marian (Maie) Casey AC

Biography

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

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