- About us
- Support the Gallery
- Venue hire
- Publications
- Research library
- Organisation chart
- Employment
- Contact us
- Make a booking
- Onsite programs
- Online programs
- School visit information
- Learning resources
- Little Darlings
- Professional learning
Stella Bowen, painter and writer, grew up in Adelaide, where she studied with Margaret Preston.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2003
A newly acquired work by Stella Bowen adds to the National Portrait Gallery's growing collection of important Australian self-portraits.
National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan AM nominates her quintet of favourites from the collection, with early twentieth-century ‘selfies’ filling the roster.
Stella Cornelius AO OBE (1919–2010), businesswoman and peace activist, was born to Jewish parents in Sydney and grew up moving around New South Wales as her father, a draper and tailor, found work during the Depression.
1 portrait in the collection
Stella Ramage on Father McHardy’s Bougainville portraiture.
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Gift of the Cornelius family 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Roy de Maistre, the Australians in Hollywood exhibtion, Stella Bowen, portraits of scientists and more.
In love and war
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.
Finalist, MDPA 2013
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.
Drusilla Modjeska (b. 1946), writer, feminist and academic, was born in England and moved to Australia in 1971 after several years in Papua New Guinea.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002
Col Levy (b. 1933), ceramic artist, originally trained as a manual arts teacher, and had the opportunity to study pottery at the National Art School in Sydney in 1956.
1 portrait in the collection
Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.
Charles Ulm (1898-1934) began work as a clerk in a stockbroking office after he left school, but enlisted under a false identity in the 1st Battalion of the AIF just before his 16th birthday.
2 portraits in the collection
Figurative abstract artist and designer Howard Tangye was born in Queensland in 1948 and lived and worked in London from the 1970s until recently.
1 portrait in the collection
Curator Emma Kindred shares a glimpse of the creative process behind her selection of works for the National Portrait Gallery’s salon hang.
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
Gift of Justice Ian Callinan 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2023
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Amy Christine Rivett (1891–1962), doctor, contributed greatly to medicine and women's health.
1 portrait in the collection
Michele Aboud, commercial, fashion and portrait photographer, is a graduate of the Photographic College of London and UCLA.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Sydney Airports Corporation 2001
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
Alexis Wright (b. 1950), author and activist, won the Miles Franklin Award in 2007 for her novel Carpentaria and the 2018 Stella Prize for her collective memoir Tracker.
1 portrait in the collection
May Emmeline Wirth (1894–1978), circus performer, was once described as the ‘greatest lady bareback rider of all time’.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Purchased 2010
The National Portrait Gallery recently announced the finalists for the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award 2013.
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.
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
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.
Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.
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.
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 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.
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.