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Annual Appeal

Conflicting images

Michael Desmond reveals the origins of composite portraits and their evolution in the pursuit of the ideal.

The Saint and the merchant

Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.

People are people

Sandra Bruce chats with seven-time NPPP finalist Chris Budgeon about photography, guitars and representing the human story.

Paths to portraiture

The life and art of Australian artist Jenny Sages is on display in the exhibition Paths to Portraiture.

Australians in Hollywood

The exhibition Australians in Hollywood celebrated the achievements of Australians in the highly competitive American film industry.

Lovers of light

Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.

All dressed up

Jane Raffan asks do clothes make the portrait, and can the same work with a new title fetch a better price?

A sketch for some portraits

Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.

Confessional conversations

Fiona Gruber investigates the work of Australian painter Kristin Headlam.

The Vanity model

Vanity Fair Editor David Friend describes how the rebirth of the magazine sated our desire for access into the lives of celebrities and set the standard for the new era of portrait photography.

NPPP 2016 exhibition essay

Penny Grist, National Photographic Portrait Prize judge and curator, introduces the 2016 Prize.

Poise and Carats

I keep going back to Cartier: The Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia next door, and, within the exhibition, to Princess Marie Louise’s diamond, pearl and sapphire Indian tiara (1923), surely one of the most superb head ornaments ever conceived.

Presence and absence

The art of Australia’s colonial women painters affords us an invaluable, alternative perspective on the nascent nation-building project.

The Thyssen Art Macabre

Books seldom make me angry but this one did. At first, I was powerfully struck by the uncanny parallels that existed between the Mellons of Pittsburgh and the Thyssens of the Ruhr through the same period, essentially the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Christmas Island

This is my last Trumbology before, in a little more than a week from now, I pass to my successor Karen Quinlan the precious baton of the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.