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NPPP judge Robert Cook provides irreverent insight into this year’s fare, and having to be a bit judgemental.
Robert Oatley's continuing benefaction has helped the National Portrait Gallery acquire works that add another layer to the story of Captain Cook.
In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.
Robert Oatley talks about the repatriation of the John Webber portrait of Captain James Cook.
Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.
Artist David M Thomas lists some of the ideas and influences behind his video portraits.
Anne Sanders writes about the exhibitions Victoria & Albert: Art & Love on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the retrospective of Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.
Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Magda Keaney talks with Montalbetti+Campbell about their photographic portrait of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.
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.
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
As part of its ongoing program of commissions of portraits of prominent Australians, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a portrait of Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson by South Australian artist Avril Thomas.
Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
At just 7.8 x 6.2 cm, the daguerreotype of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa is one of the smallest works in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features David Moore, Midnight Oil, Dr Joan Croll by John Brack, the acquisition of the Captain Cook portrait, and more.
This issue features the new National Portrait Gallery building, James Cook and John Banks, Cate Blanchett, Irina Baranova, Annette Kellerman, Shepard Fairey and more.
Max Dupain's unknown portrait subjects, phrenologist Madame Sibly, Indigenous-European relationships, Thomas Gainsborough and more.
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Bill Leak's portrait of Robert Hughes, Polly Borland's photographs, Bill Brandt, Andy Thomas, Tracey Moffatt and more.
This issue features suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Wainewright, Rick Amor, Chuck Close, Mick Dodson, Scott Redford, the National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition and more.
Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.
NPG Washington director Kim Sajet on the Obama portraits, Sarah Ball’s Immigrants, judging the NPPP, Frances Hodgkins, and Picnic at Hanging Rock.
This edited version of a speech by Andrew Sayers examines some of the antecedents of the National Portrait Gallery and set out the ideas behind the modern Gallery and its collection.
In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.
Ralph Heimans on his portraits, and features on Louis Kahan, Helena Rubinstein, Judy Cassab and Tasmanian convicts.
A focus on Indigenous-European relationships underpins Facing New Worlds. By Kate Fullagar.
The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.
Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.
Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.
The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.
Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.
Dr G Yunupingu (1970-2017), a man of the Gumatj clan of north-east Arnhem Land, learned to play guitar, keyboard, drums and didgeridoo as a child.
Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.
The National Portrait Gallery acquired a beguiling silhouette group portrait by Samuel Metford, an English artist who spent periods of his working life in America.
Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.
David Solkin ponders the provocations and inspirations of the enigmatic Thomas Gainsborough.
An exhibition devoted to Hans Holbein's English commissions shows the portraitist bringing across the Channel new technical developments in art - with a dazzling facility.
Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.
Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.
A reflection on the National Portrait Gallery's first four years.
Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.
Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.
Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.
The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.
Angus Trumble ponders the many faces of William Bligh.
In April 2006 the National Portrait Gallery showcased Australian portraits at the Fredenksborg Castle in Denmark.
A brief introduction to the Weird, Wired World of Internet Portraiture.
Magda Keaney examines the 123 Faces project by Simon Obarzanek.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.
Joanna Gilmour recounts the story of ill-fated sea voyages in the early stages of the Antipodean colony.
The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.
Djon Mundine OAM brings poignant memory and context to Martin van der Wal’s 1986 portrait photographs of storied Aboriginal artists.
Michael Desmond interviews Ralph Heimans about his portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
Dr Sarah Engledow tells the story of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee portrait by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.
Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.
Australian photographer Karin Catt has shot across the spectrum of celebrity, her subjects including rock stars, world leaders and actors.
The biographical exhibition of Barry Humphries was the first display of its kind at the National Portrait Gallery.
Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.
Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.
An extract from the 2004 Nuala O'Flaaherty Memorial Lecture at the Queen Victoria Musuem and Art Gallery in Launceston in which Andrew Sayers reflects on the unique qualities of a portrait gallery.
A new painting by Jiawei Shen captures the vision and resolve of the Gallery's founder, L. Gordon Darling AC CMG.
Joanna Gilmour describes some of the stories of the individuals and incidents that define French exploration of Australia and the Pacific.
Michael Wardell samples the fare in the University of Queensland National Self-portrait Prize.
Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.
David Hansen’s tribute to his close friend, prince of words and former National Portrait Gallery director, the late Angus Trumble.
Emma Kindred looks at the career of Joan Ross, whose work subverts colonial imagery and its legacy with the clash of fluorescent yellow.
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Joanna Gilmour explores the 1790 portrait of William Bligh by Robert Dodd.
Exploring the photographs of Martin Schoeller, Michael Desmond delves into the uneasy pact that exists between celebrity and the camera.
Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?
David Ward writes about the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.
Joanna Gilmour revels in accidental artist Charles Rodius’ nineteenth century renderings of Indigenous peoples.
Gallery directors Karen Quinlan and Tony Ellwood talk to Penelope Grist about the NPG and NGV collaborative exhibition, Who Are You: Australian Portraiture.
Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.
Joanna Gilmour delves into a collection display that celebrates the immediacy and potency of drawing as an art form in its own right.
Christopher Chapman considers photographer Rozalind Drummond's portrait of author Nam Le.
Aircraft designer, pilot and entrepreneur, Sir Lawrence Wackett rejoins friends and colleagues on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.
Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.
Christopher Chapman delights in the intimacy of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography
Naomi Cass, Director of the Centre of Contemporary Photography, in conversation with Anne Zahalka.
Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.
Sir Sidney Kidman (1857-1935) is inscribed in Australian legend as the ‘Cattle King’.
Gumbaynggirr artist Aretha Brown talks street art, collaboration and ghost stories with First Nations Curator and Meriam woman, Rebecca Ray.
Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.
Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.
The National Portrait Gallery's acquisition of the portrait of Edward John Eyre by pioneering English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
Cartoonist Michael Leunig's insights into the human condition and current affairs have become famous Australia-wide.
Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.
Joanna Gilmour looks beyond the ivory face of select portrait miniatures to reveal their sitters’ true grit.
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.
Gideon Haigh discusses portraits of Australian cricketers from the early 20th century
A design diary retrospective.
Grace Carroll contemplates the curious case of Christian Waller.
An exploration of national identity in the Canadian context drawn from the symposium Face to Face at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004.
Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.
Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.
In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.
Angus Trumble reveals the complex technical mastery behind a striking recent acquisition, Henry Bone’s enamel portrait of William Manning.
Jane Raffan examines unique styles of Indigenous portraiture that challenge traditional Western concepts of the artform.
Joanna Gilmour dives into the life of Australian swimming legend Annette Kellerman.
Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.
Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.
Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.
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.
The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.
Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.
Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.
Jo Gilmour uncovers endearing authenticity in the art of a twice-transported Tasmanian.
Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.
A toast to the acquisition of an unconventional new portrait of former Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825.
The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.
How seven portraits within Bare reveal in a public portrait parts of the body and elements of life usually located in the private sphere.
Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.
Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of convict-turned-artist William Buelow Gould.
Sarah Engledow bristles at the biographers’ neglect of Kitchener’s antipodean intervention.