THE National Portrait Gallery has a new focus exhibition of portraits by Arthur Boyd, titled “Mysterious eyes: Arthur Boyd portraits from 1945.”

Consisting of nine works, the display will bring together a collection of portraits of people close to Boyd. Painted when he was 25, these portraits show how his treatment of the subjects reflected his own state of mind.

Senior curator at the Portrait Gallery, Christopher Chapman, says he felt inspired by this period in Boyd’s life when his paintings expressed his deep psychological feelings.

“In these portraits painted by Arthur Boyd, the eyes suggest deep emotional feelings – whether they stare out at you and I, or glance away,” Chapman says, “In young Arthur’s self-portrait his furrowed brow and steady glare convey his determined and serious look at the world.”

At age 25, he explained,  Boyd  made a series of expressionist-styled portraits of those around him. The portraits are perceptive of their subject’s character and a strong reflection of Arthur’s own view of others as individuals with intense and complex feelings.

“The Gallery owns three portraits from this time which provided a great opportunity to show these works with others from the National Gallery and Bundanon Trust together as a survey of how Arthur viewed himself and others – as a young man, “ he says.

The exhibition will include five works from the National Gallery of Australia and one from Bundanon Trust.

“Mysterious eyes,” Gallery One, National Portrait Gallery, May 4 to August 14. Open 10am–5pm daily.