Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Peter Purves Smith had been a student at Geelong Grammar and a jackaroo before undertaking art studies at the Grosvenor School in London, the George Bell School in Melbourne and the Grande Chaumière in Paris.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Lady Maisie Drysdale 2001
Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Lady Maisie Drysdale 2001
Since 1993 Brisbane-based artist David M Thomas has investigated self identity through art works that encompass painting, text, audio, video and performance.
An interview with Australian astronaut, Dr. Andy Thomas, who describes the experience of space travel.
Thomas Lewis Atkinson (1817-c. 1890) is described in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists as 'one of the shining representatives of English engraving'.
1 portrait in the collection
Rover Thomas (1926-1998), Kukatja-Wangkajunga artist, was born in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia and worked as a stockman and fencer before losing his employment upon the introduction of equal pay for indigenous workers in 1975.
1 portrait in the collection
Andy Thomas AO (b. 1951) is an astronaut. Born and educated in Adelaide, an engineer by profession, he managed a number of aeronautical programs and patented several inventions before joining NASA in 1992.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Phillips was born in Dudley, Warwickshire and initially trained as a glass painter before moving to London, aged 20, with a letter of introduction to the painter Benjamin West.
6 portraits in the collection
Thomas Daunt Lord (1783–1865) was the commandant of the convict station on Maria Island from 1825 until 1832.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Buddle (1812-1883), Wesleyan missionary, worked for 42 years in New Zealand, ministering to Maori and colonists in the Waikato, Auckland and the south.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Cook produced portraits for the Gentleman's Magazine and frontispieces for book publishers, as well as a number of single plates in different genres for Boydell.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Muir (1765-1799), lawyer, political activist and political convict, began studies at the University of Glasgow at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
Thomas Bock, artist, printmaker and photographer, is believed to have been born at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, in 1790.
5 portraits in the collection
The Hon. Thomas Playford was a delegate from South Australia to the Constitutional Convention, Sydney, 1891.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Keneally (b.1935), author and republican activist, has achieved a considerable reputation for the breadth and accessibility of his writing, and his passion for causes about which many Australians feel deeply.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas J Washbourne worked as a photographer in Geelong and Melbourne in the 1860s and 70s.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas de Kessler, artist, came to Australia from Hungary in 1950. Born into an academic and creative family, he spoke several languages and had attended art school before arriving in Melbourne.
3 portraits in the collection
Thomas Clark, teacher and painter, arrived in Victoria from England in about 1852, having been anatomical draftsman at King's College London and headmaster of the Birmingham School of Design.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), Welsh traveller, antiquary, naturalist, and author, visited Joseph Banks in September 1771, shortly after Banks returned from his voyage with Cook on the Endeavour.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Pearce (c. 1860-1909) was an apprentice on the English merchant vessel the Loch Ard, which embarked for Victoria in March 1878 carrying 37 crew and 16 passengers, many from the Carmichael family.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was one of the leading portrait painters of the Georgian era.
8 portraits in the collection
Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836–1918), politician and governor, studied law and modern history at Oxford, but abandoned law for a career in politics two years after being called to the Bar.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Woolner, sculptor, studied first with the brothers Henry and William Behnes, painter and sculptor respectively, and later at the Royal Academy, at which he was to become professor of sculpture in his fifties.
5 portraits in the collection
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
A police party comprising Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlan and McIntyre was dispatched to capture the Kelly gang in 1878.
1 portrait in the collection
Recorded 1967
Recorded 1967
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diana de Kessler 2009
The Knox's third son, Thomas Forster Knox (1849-1919) followed his father and older brother into business, and became prominent in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Heathfield Carrick, miniature painter, grew up in Carlisle, where he trained and traded as a chemist, painting miniatures in his spare time.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847) is one of the most intriguing and talented figures in colonial Australian art.
4 portraits in the collection
Thomas Herbert Maguire was a painter and lithographer working in London in the middle of the nineteenth century.
4 portraits in the collection
Thomas Foster Chuck (c. 1826-1898) specialised in photographing well-known colonists, many of whom featured amongst the 700 photographs in his huge mosaic The Explorers and Early Colonists of Victoria.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Lempriere came to Tasmania in 1822, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (1816-1878) was a merchant, shipbuilder, wool broker and pioneer of the technique of freezing meat for export.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Mackdougall Brisbane (1773-1860) was born into an aristocratic Scottish family and entered the army at the age of 16.
2 portraits in the collection
Thomas Joseph Carr (1839–1917) was the second Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, the successor to James Alipius Goold.
2 portraits in the collection
Thomas Foster Chuck (1826-1898), photographer and entrepreneur, was born in London and arrived in Victoria in 1861.
4 portraits in the collection
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) travelled to Australia as a member of the expedition conducted by Owen Stanley on the Rattlesnake between 1846 and 1850.
2 portraits in the collection
Thomas Wentworth (Tom) Wills (1836–1880), is popularly thought of as the ‘inventor ‘ of Australian Rules football.
2 portraits in the collection
Courtesy of the Tait family
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mr Peter Kampfner 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2002
John Thomas Lang (1876–1975) served two terms as premier of New South Wales in the 1920s and 1930s.
5 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter E.B. Mansell 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Thomas de Kessler 2001
As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased through the Foundation Acquisitions Fund 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Fiona Turner (née Robertson) and John Robertson 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Recorded 1967
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney PC (1733-1800) was British Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, given responsibility for devising a plan to settle convicts at Botany Bay.
1 portrait in the collection
Thomas Stange Heiss Oscar Asche (1871–1936), actor, director and producer, was one of Australia’s most successful theatre exports.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
Michael Desmond examines the career of the eighteenth-century suspected poisoner and portrait artist Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds from the Ian Potter Foundation 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of T S Wills Cooke 2014
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ross and Judy O'Connell 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Magda Keaney talks with Montalbetti+Campbell about their photographic portrait of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Elsie Martin 2000
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by The Ian Potter Foundation 2007
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned 2006
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ronald A Walker 2009. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with the assistance of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Canberra 2000
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Ted and Gina Gregg 2012
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010
Dr Sarah Engledow explores the portraits of writers held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Mavis (Maisie) Mathews (1915-2001), children’s librarian and artists’ muse, developed an interest in art as a Melbourne schoolgirl, and attended both the University of Melbourne and the George Bell School until she opted for the latter.
1 portrait in the collection
Fanny Lee (1832–1905) was the only daughter of colonial landowner John Richard Tindale and his wife Mary (whose portraits by Maurice Felton are displayed nearby).
1 portrait in the collection
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), potter and industrialist, became an apprentice to his potter brother, Thomas, at an early age.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2019
Courtesy of the Tait family
Lewis Pingo was an engraver at the Royal Mint. Pingo's father Thomas, an Italian-born medallist and die engraver, was one of the founders of the Royal Academy in 1768.
1 portrait in the collection
Paddy Jaminji (Jampin) (1912-1996), Kija visual artist, spent much of his life in and around his country near Bedford Downs station in WA.
1 portrait in the collection
For love, not money
Theresa Shepheard Mort (née Laidley, 1820-1869), colonial spouse, was one of eight children of civil servant James Laidley and his wife Eliza Jane (née Shepheard).
2 portraits in the collection
An interview with former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers, who describes the portrait of Sir Henry Barkly by Thomas Clark.
Brothers in harms
Max Dupain's unknown portrait subjects, phrenologist Madame Sibly, Indigenous-European relationships, Thomas Gainsborough and more.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tim Clark 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
Using ochres collected on her country in Western Australia’s East Kimberley, Shirley Purdie’s self-portrait is a kaleidoscope of traditional Gija stories and Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) passed down to her.
Sir Russell Drysdale AC (1912-1981), painter, developed eye trouble in 1929, and had to leave boarding school for the first of many eye treatments which left him fearful of total blindness.
6 portraits in the collection
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Leaders, painters, friends
Tim Storrier AM (b. 1949), painter, studied at the National Art School from 1967 to 1969.
4 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Little is known of John Chapman, who engraved fine allegorical subjects after the designs of J Smith and Richard Corbould and worked closely with Thomas Macklin on his Shakespeare series.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Alan Boxer, public servant, academic and art collector, was schooled in Melbourne and gained his economic qualifications in Melbourne and Oxford.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
Courtesy of the Corrigan family and Stuart Purves
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Peter Halliday in memory of Norah Knox 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Moses Griffith, topographer, draftsman, watercolourist and engraver, spent his life in the service of Thomas Pennant, antiquarian and amateur naturalist; although engaged as a servant, he was employed by Pennant as a full time artist from 1771.
1 portrait in the collection
François Jacques Dequevauviller was the son of the French engraver Nicolas-Barthelemy François Dequevauviller (1745–1807).
1 portrait in the collection
John Thomas Barber, army officer, insurer, miniaturist and philanthropist, took the additional name of Beaumont in 1812.
1 portrait in the collection
John Williams (1796-1839), missionary, began his working life in 1810, apprenticed to an ironmonger, but in 1814 he underwent an Evangelical conversion and became a member of the Tabernacle Church (Calvinistic Methodist).
1 portrait in the collection
Robert Thomas Carter (1843–1917) was a leading Sydney cabinetmaker and furniture warehouseman, and later an antique dealer.
2 portraits in the collection
Eleanor Wingate (née Rouse, 1813–1898) was the second youngest daughter of colonial public servant and landowner Richard Rouse (1774–1852) and his wife Elizabeth (née Adams, 1772–1849), who’d come to Sydney as free settlers in 1801.
1 portrait in the collection
George Mealmaker (1768–1808), convict and activist, became involved in radical politics in his native Dundee in the 1780s.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Pamela Glasson 2009
Collected by Leila Haigh (nee Rouse)
Sir William Beechey, portrait painter and pupil of Johann Zoffany, was greatly influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
1 portrait in the collection
English-born Thomas Ellis Glover moved to New Zealand as a child and by his early twenties was working as a cartoonist, court reporter and journalist.
10 portraits in the collection
The ‘first Australian first-class cricket team to tour England and North America’ was in fact the second Australian cricket side to contest matches internationally (a team of Indigenous players having done so in 1868), but it is considered the first official national representative team to tour overseas.
1 portrait in the collection
Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, studied art for several years before being employed by an engraver named Testolini to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which Testolini passed off as his own.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mr and Mrs James Bain 2000. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gareth Mawson Thomas and Pamela Karran-Thomas of the Mawson family 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Ralph Heimans on his portraits, and features on Louis Kahan, Helena Rubinstein, Judy Cassab and Tasmanian convicts.
Hon Thomas Hughes AO QC (b. 1923), lawyer and former politician, was born in Sydney and educated at Riverview before serving in the RAAF during World War 2.
3 portraits in the collection
Sir James Balderstone (1921-2014) was chairman of BHP from 1984 to 1989.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Aspects of singer songwriter Paul Kelly’s performance persona are communicated by portraits selected from a range of artists and leading music photographers in this focus exhibition.
Fred Schepisi AO (b. 1939), film producer and director, briefly trained to be a priest before working in advertising.
1 portrait in the collection
Sir (Aynsley) Eugene Goossens (1893-1962) was an English conductor, composer and violinist.
2 portraits in the collection
Courtesy of Dr. J Allsop
James Heath commenced an apprenticeship with an engraver named Joseph Collyer at the age of fourteen.
2 portraits in the collection
William John Pickett Bedford (1805–1869) was the eldest of three children of Anglican clergyman, William Bedford (1781–1852), and his wife, Eleanor, and came to Van Diemen’s Land with his family in 1823 following the appointment of his father to a chaplaincy in the colony.
1 portrait in the collection
To celebrate Peter Sculthorpe's 80th birthday, the National Portrait Gallery has created a feature exhibition of portraits and associated biographic material drawn from the National Portrait Gallery and the composer’s personal collection.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003
Talented wife for a talented husband
Elizabeth Sarah Ellen Carter (née Hill, 1845-1927) was one of the eight children born to Sydney cabinetmaker and undertaker John Hill jnr and his wife Elizabeth - the step-daughter of ex-convict boatman, John Cadman.
1 portrait in the collection
Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754–1803), cartographic surveyor and naturalist, was sent by the French government to survey the coast of Australia in 1800.
1 portrait in the collection
Paul Kelly (b. 1955), singer, songwriter and producer, grew up in Adelaide and first performed in Hobart in 1974.
4 portraits in the collection
George Richmond, son of the miniature painter Thomas Richmond, grew up in London, took early artistic instruction from his father and enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1824.
1 portrait in the collection
Artist Henry Mundy arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 and took up a position as teacher of drawing, French and music at Ellinthorp Hall, a school near Ross established ‘with a view to the improvement of Young Ladies’.
4 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Eleanor Thorton 2013
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Gina and Ted Gregg 2010
Charles Henry Theodore Costantini (also Constantine, Constantini and Costantine) was a Paris-born surgeon of Italian descent who was twice transported to the Australian colonies in the 1820s.
1 portrait in the collection
A penny for their thoughts
Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879) photographer, artist and Anglican clergyman, arrived in Hobart in 1843 to take up the role of Bishop of Tasmania.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift in memory of Frederick John Cato Kumm 2011
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Danina Anderson, daughter of Max Dupain 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Arnold Shore, a lifelong inhabitant of Melbourne, was apprenticed to a stained glass and leadlight company called Brooks, Robinson soon after leaving school at the age of twelve.
2 portraits in the collection
Sir Francis Forbes (1784–1841) was the first chief justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.
1 portrait in the collection
Grace Cossington Smith OBE (1892-1984) was an artist who was at the forefront of the Australian modernist movement.
1 portrait in the collection
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Wesley Stacey (b. 1941), photographer, was an apprentice silk screener and studied drawing and design at East Sydney Technical College in the early 1960s before working as a graphic designer and photographer in Sydney and London.
3 portraits in the collection
The self-portrait enables students to explore emerging and changing aspects of their own identity, their sense of self, their place in the world, their experience of being human
The late Georgian and early Victorian working classes often bought their food in ale-houses, chop-houses and ‘penny pie shops’, or purchased their meals day after day in the streets.
We are grateful to our supporters who help us care for, exhibit and study the Gallery's Collection and to offer programs that bring our portraits to life.
Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892), naturalist, anatomist and palaeontologist, was born in Lancaster and apprenticed to surgeon-apothecaries there before completing his studies in medicine in Edinburgh and London.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Peter Brew-Bevan 2012
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2013
Lady Hay, née Chalmers (c. 1806-1892) was reported at the time of her death to have been about ten years older than Hay.
1 portrait in the collection
Aboriginal artist, Queenie McKenzie had a relatively short artistic career as she did not begin to paint until the late 1980’s after encouragement from her friend, Rover Thomas, one of Australia’s most well known Aboriginal artists.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018
Ethel Anderson (née Mason, 1883-1958), writer and artist, was an important figure in the Sydney modern art scene of the 1920s and 30s.
2 portraits in the collection
Joan Kerr (1938-2004), art historian, writer and lecturer, was responsible for several key reference texts on Australian art.
1 portrait in the collection
Charles Abraham, son of a London architect, trained at the Royal Academy schools under the sculptor Sierier, and for a further three years in Paris and Rome.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
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
Hugh Reskymer 'Kym' Bonython AC DFC AFC (1920-2011), company director, art dealer, jazz authority, music promoter and speedway entrepreneur, was one of the most significant collectors and dealers of contemporary Australian art in the post-war period.
2 portraits in the collection
Artist David M Thomas lists some of the ideas and influences behind his video portraits.
Jules Poret de Blosseville (1802-1833), geographer, navigator and explorer, was a junior officer on the Coquille, which, under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey, conducted a voyage to Oceania and South America between 1822 and 1825.
1 portrait in the collection
Frederick Cato (1858-1935), grocer and philanthropist, was born in a tent at Pleasant Creek (Stawell), to the Scottish wife of an English gold miner.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Ian Darling 2013
The Hon Sir Reginald Talbot KCB (1841-1929), army officer and English MP, was governor of Victoria from April 1904 to July 1908.
1 portrait in the collection
Henry (Thomas Henry) Kendall (1839-1882) was once regarded as the finest poet Australia had produced.
1 portrait in the collection
'I have just been to my dressing case to take a peep at you.
Thomas Coleman Durkin trained at the Williamstown School of Design and started work in Melbourne as an apprentice to an engraver and then a jeweller.
27 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Claudia Hyles, Dr Christiane Lawin-Bruessel, Gwenda Matthews, Gael Newton, Anne O'Hehir, Susan Smith and Dominic Thomas in memory of our friend, Robyn Beeche 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2001
Maurice Appleby Felton (1803-1842) arrived in Sydney with his wife and four children in late 1839 as surgeon to the immigrant ship the Royal Admiral.
3 portraits in the collection
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
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.
Michelle Simmons (b. 1967), 2018 Australian of the Year, is a pioneer in atomic electronics and quantum computing.
1 portrait in the collection
Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Jeremiah Ware (1792–1878) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1822 with his wife, Mary (née Brooks, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Australia has become recognised for the range and talent of its musicians, composers, conductors and celebrities in general associated with the music industry
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.
Dr Arthur Martin a’Beckett FRCS (1812-1871) surgeon and New South Wales parliamentarian studied at London University from 1831 before undertaking a residency in Paris, centre for innovation in the practice of hygiene, pathological anatomy and physiopathology.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Nancy Wiseman 2007
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
The Australian cricket team of 1882 was the third side to tour England and the team whose defeat of England at The Oval in August of that year initiated the 'The Ashes' Test series.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
Piper (life dates unknown), also known as John Piper, was a Wiradjuri man who acted as a guide to Thomas Mitchell’s surveying expedition along the Murray and Darling Rivers into present-day Victoria in 1836.
2 portraits in the collection
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-c. 1848) went to school and university in Germany but the range of his interests was such that he never actually graduated (he was later called Dr Leichhardt in recognition of his broad scholarship).
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Caroline Philippa Parker 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013
In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.
Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
David Strachan (1919–1970), painter and printmaker, was educated at Geelong Grammar School and then studied art at the Slade School in London.
2 portraits in the collection
David Solkin ponders the provocations and inspirations of the enigmatic Thomas Gainsborough.
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.
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.
John Connell (c. 1759–1849), free settler, merchant and landowner, came to New South Wales aboard the Earl Cornwallis, which arrived in Sydney in June 1801.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by
Ross A Field 2007
Lecture by Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, given at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on 28 April 2006.
Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Mortimer Lewis (1796–1879), surveyor and architect, and his wife Elizabeth (née Clements, c.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003
These full-length figures in watercolour, gouache and pencil date mostly from the 1820s, and almost all come from the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.
Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Leo Schofield AM 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Michael Desmond discusses the portrait of Senator Neville Bonner by Robert Campbell Jnr.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007
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.
This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Born in Manila in 1972, Alfredo Esquillo Jr majored in painting at University of Santo Thomas.
The National Portrait Gallery this week launches an online exhibition of Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe to coincide with Reconciliation Week.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015
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 acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the family of FW Macpherson 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
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.
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.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903), statesman, landowner, businessman, connoisseur, scholar and physician, was born illegitimately into unpropitious circumstances in Yorkshire.
2 portraits in the collection
Magda Keaney examines the 123 Faces project by Simon Obarzanek.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.
Joanna Gilmour explores the life of colonial women Lady Ellen Stirling, Eliza Darling, Lady Eliza Arthur, Elizabeth Macquarie and Lady Jane Franklin.
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.
Commissioned with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2018
The National Portrait Gallery acquired the self-portrait by Grace Cossington Smith in 2003.
Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.
Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.
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.
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.
Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.
Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.
Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.
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.
The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.
Sarah Engledow on Messrs Dobell and MacMahon and the art of friendship.
Joanna Gilmour on Tom Durkin playing with Melbourne's manhood.
Gareth Knapman explores the politics and opportunism behind the portraits of Tasmania’s Black War.
Christopher Chapman considers photographer Rozalind Drummond's portrait of author Nam Le.
Christopher Chapman delights in the intimacy of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography
Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.
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.
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
Ashleigh Wadman rediscovers the Australian characters represented with a kindly touch by the British portrait artist Leslie Ward for the society magazine Vanity Fair.
One night in the spring of 1970 in an old house in Whale Beach, north of Sydney, John Witzig, Albe Falzon and David Elfick put together the first issue of Tracks, playing Neil Young’s album Harvest over and over again as they pasted up galleys of type.
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.
Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.
Sarah Engledow writes about Gordon and Marilyn Darling and their support for the National Portrait Gallery throughout its evolution.
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.
Grace Carroll on the gendered world of the Wentworths.
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.
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.
Sharon Peoples contemplates costumes and the construction of identity.
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.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
Joanna Gilmour accounts for Australia’s deliciously ghoulish nineteenth century criminal portraiture.
Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.
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.
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.
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.
Curator, Penny Grist, reveals how this exhibition came to be
