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.
Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.
The life and achievements of Sir Edward Holden, who is represented in the portrait collection by a bust created by Leslie Bowles.
Christopher Chapman immerses himself in Larry Clark’s field of vision.
Celebrates the centenary of the first national art collection, the Historic Memorials Collection, housed at Australia's Parliament House.
In 2006 the National Portrait Gallery acquired a splendid portrait of Victoria's first governor, Lieutenant Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe by Thomas Woolner.
Mark Haworth-Booth explains why Bill Brandt is one of the most important British photographers of the Twentieth Century.
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.
The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.
The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.
John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.
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.
English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.
Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.
Martin Sharp fulfils the Pop art idiom of merging art and life.
National Gallery of Australia curator Jane Kinsman discusses the portraiture of Henri Matisse.
