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2024 Annual Appeal

In 1998, acclaimed artist Tracey Moffatt gifted her portrait Some Lads #1 (Russell Page) to the National Portrait Gallery. In 2024 we had the extraordinary opportunity to acquire the full body of work, adding Some Lads #2, Some Lads #3, Some Lads #4 and Some Lads #5 to the collection.

Some lads #1, 1986

Gift of the artist 1998. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Eccleston Du Faur, 1911

Gift of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service 2020

Elegance in exile

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.

You beauty

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

Fine and dandy

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.

The importance of being bearded

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.

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.

Two pair

To the end of the earth

The portrait of Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster from 1780, is one of the oldest in the NPG's collection.

An Australian story

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.

Portrait Donors