Facing Examination: A good look at portraits in the Historic Memorials Collection.

Join Dr Sarah Engledow, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Australian Studies Institute, for a lecture reflecting on 110 years of the Historic Memorials Collection.

About Historic Memorials Collection

Established in 1911 by Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, the Historic Memorials Collection (HMC) is Australia’s longest running art commissioning program and offers a unique record of the intersection of art and politics. 

The collection was championed by artist Tom Roberts, who wrote to Prime Minister Alfred Deakin to ask for a collection of records painted to give ‘faithful representations’ of the first leaders of the Commonwealth. 

The focus of the HMC is to represent the bodies by which Australia is governed: the Parliament, the Executive, and the Judiciary, as set out in the Constitution. It features portraits of Australia’s Heads of State, Governors-General, Prime Ministers, Presidents of the Senate, Speakers of the House of Representatives and Justices of the High Court. 

The collection also includes portraits of accomplished Australians, important parliamentary ‘firsts’, such as Australia’s First Nations parliamentarians, and commemorative records of significant parliamentary events.

Many HMC artists have been finalists and winners of important Australian art prizes, including the prestigious prize for portraiture, the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Archibald Prize. Currently, the HMC contains over 260 works of art by prominent Australian artists and is still growing. In representing the intersection of art and politics, the HMC reflects the nation's political history and the evolution of official portraiture in Australia. 

For more information about HMC, please visit here.

Venue Information

Please arrive at Parliament House at least 15 minutes prior to the start time and allow time for parking and clearance through security screening.

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