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Self portrait, c. 1934

Purchased 2003

A Singular Line

A newly acquired work by Stella Bowen adds to the National Portrait Gallery's growing collection of important Australian self-portraits.

Give me five

National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan AM nominates her quintet of favourites from the collection, with early twentieth-century ‘selfies’ filling the roster.

Missionary positions

Stella Ramage on Father McHardy’s Bougainville portraiture.

Sir George Ferguson Bowen, c. 1873

Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009

Vice-Royalty. "A Quoter of Poetry" [George Bowen, Governor of Victoria], 1873

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Dr Stella Cornelius AO OBE, 1989

Gift of the Cornelius family 2019

Charles Conder, Stella Maris Condor and Florence Humphrey at les Petites Dalles, Normandy, 1902

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Stella

Portrait 10

This issue of Portrait Magazine features Roy de Maistre, the Australians in Hollywood exhibtion, Stella Bowen, portraits of scientists and more.

Stella #1, 2017

Sharing the dream?

In love and war

The Cosmopolitans

Spanning the 1880s to the 1930s, this collection display celebrates the innovations in art – and life – introduced by the generation of Australians who travelled to London and Paris for experience and inspiration in the decades either side of 1900.

Self, titled, 2013

Finalist, MDPA 2013

The Cosmopolitans

Spanning the 1880s to the 1930s, this collection display celebrates the innovations in art – and life – introduced by the generation of Australians who travelled to London and Paris for experience and inspiration in the decades either side of 1900.

The sitter (Drusilla Modjeska), 2001

Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002

Facing Facts

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.

Frank, 2007

Conversation pieces

Curator Emma Kindred shares a glimpse of the creative process behind her selection of works for the National Portrait Gallery’s salon hang.

Diseased curiosity

Just after 10.00 o'clock on 3 December 1879, four prisoners were brought from their cells at Darlinghurst Gaol and placed in the dock of a courtroom heaving with agitated spectators

Portrait bust of Dr Christine Rivett, c. 1950 (cast 1955-1956)

Gift of Justice Ian Callinan 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Gooseberry, widow of King Bungaree, 1836

Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Richard N (sitting on green chair backwards, 2 faces), 2000-2010

Gift of the artist 2023

May Wirth, c. 1921

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

Captain Ulm, 1932

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001

To Look Within

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

The World of Thea Proctor

The World of Thea Proctor is the Portrait Gallery's second major biographical exhibition - that is, the second exhibition to focus exclusively on the life and work of a single individual

Thomas Pearce, c. 1878

Purchased 2010

Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award media information

The National Portrait Gallery recently announced the finalists for the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2013.

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 fat of the land

Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’. 

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022

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.

Fugue in Yellow

Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.

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.

Sideshow Alley

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.

Big it up

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.

Anna Culliton

Anna Culliton never had a colouring-in book when she was little. Her parents –Tony, a filmmaker, and Stephanie, a painter – wouldn’t let her have one. Instead, they insisted on her drawing her own pictures to colour-in. 

Nicholas Harding

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. 

Portrait Donors