I have been mourning the death of Gordon Darling, who, together with his wife Marilyn, was responsible for the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. I first met them in 1994 when they came to visit me at the National Portrait Gallery in London. A portrait gallery had been established in Canberra under the auspices of the National Library, but it wasn’t as they wanted it – too documentary and not at all celebratory. They looked to the NPG in London as the best model and – it being Australia and as they had the best possible contacts in government (Gordon had been chairman of the NGA) – it was set free under its own Board of Trustees not long afterwards. Gordon and Marilyn became, and have remained, great friends as passionate supporters not just of portraiture, but of Australian art and of the relationship between the British and Australian art worlds.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
A very full life. I lived in Australia for a year in the 80s working with the homeless and spent a week in Canberra making repeated visits to the National Gallery (this was of course before the portrait gallery existed). The links between Australian and British art worlds look like a fertile source of study and would – I imagine – make for an interesting stream at the Australia and New Zealand Festival of Literature and Arts which has been held for the last two years at Kings College London. I can’t believe it is already 2 years since your big RA Exhibition of Australian art.
Good to see from their website that the Australian Portrait Gallery have an active education department. My 14 year old daughter had a really good time (despite being initially terrified) on the BP Next Generation Summer School at NPG London last month.
I didn’t know about the Festival of Australian and NZ Literature and Arts. Sounds interesting. Charles