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.
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.
