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.