In December 2008 the doors of the new Australian National Portrait Gallery were opened to the public. Visitor numbers quickly exceeded expectations and currently stand at over 1.5 million. In this paper it will be argued that the appeal of the portrait gallery relies upon the presentation of an accessible and relatively simple view of biography. This simple view is at odds with academic perspectives and revisionist scholarship which increasingly examines portraits as complex, dense and historically difficult images. Given the differences between popular and scholarly ideas of portraiture, this review considers viable and productive paths for collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery and academia.