Australian portraits 1880–1960
Christian Waller with Baldur, Undine and Siren at Fairy Hills 1932
oil and tempera on canvas mounted on composition board
121.5 x 205.5 cm
Collection of The National Gallery of Australia
29 January – 27 March 2011
A National Gallery of Australia Exhibition
This exhibition takes a fresh look at portraits from the National Gallery of Australia's collection, from the 1880s late colonial period to the mid 1960s and the move into abstraction. It features 54 portraits by 34 leading Australian painters, including Tom Roberts, E Phillips Fox, Hugh Ramsay, George W Lambert, Max Meldrum, Rupert Bunny, Violet Teague, Margaret Preston, Stella Bowen, Napier Waller, Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Roy de Maistre, Russell Drysdale and John Brack.
Australian portraits 1880–1960 considers the international influences upon Australian portrait painting and the more distinctive turns that Australian portraiture has taken in its own right. Australian artists have often challenged the possibilities of portraiture, rejected the predictable and pushed boundaries in both their choice of subject and their painterly approach.