It boasts more than 300 entries devoted to a selection from the 2300 art works in the National Portrait Gallery collection. It is colourful and glossy and sets out to counter the idea that historic portraits are musty old things in heavy gilded frames. Set out chronologically, from Captain James Cook to David Chalmers, the works progressively thaw out, colour photographs come into their own and funky pieces by Adam Cullen, Ken Done and TextaQueen lighten the tone.

Although a portrait gallery for Australia was on the cultural map since earliest days, with the unshakable conviction that a collection of mug shots of venerable men held up as examples of virtue would stir citizens into acts of valour, the building of the actual collection was somewhat slow to get off the ground. Inspired philanthropy by Gordon and Marilyn Darling made the idea of a dedicated permanent home for the collection a reality. By December 2008 a new building was opened by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and within five years some 3 million visitors had come to see the collection and various exhibitions in its new home.

Being a late starter meant that many of the key colonial portraits had already found permanent homes, while famous works, such as one of John Webber's versions of the portrait of James Cook, could only be acquired at an exceptionally high price. The 18th and 19th centuries, with a number of notable exceptions, do not shine particularly brightly in the Portrait Gallery collection. The pathos in the purported death mask of Ned Kelly by Maximilian Kreitmayer has been a crowd favourite and the handful of Tom Roberts portraits, the small Hugh Ramsay self-portrait and the Thomas Woolner reliefs are some of the highlights from this early period.

The first half of the 20th century is also far from brilliant. When looking at Harold Cazneaux's "pretty" portrait of Margaret Preston, it is a poor substitute for her captivating self-portrait in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and William Dobell's portraits of Charles Lloyd Jones, William Robinson and Hudson Fysh are far from the artist's greatest portraits and one only has to think of his stunning Margaret Olley portrait, also in the Sydney gallery. Self-portraits by Nora Heysen, Stella Bowen, Grace Cossington Smith and of the teenager Janet Dawson, as well as Arthur Boyd's portrait of Betty Burstall are some of the gems in the collection.

It is in the post-WWII period that the quality and scope of the Portrait Gallery's collection improves markedly with the advent of artists including John Brack, Charles Blackman, David Moore, Fred Williams and Clifton Pugh. I have always admired William Dargie's portrait of Albert Namatjira, although the version at the Queensland Art Gallery is the better painting. Dargie was a formulaic painter, but Namatjira was one of the exceptions in his oeuvre, where he was moved by a profound empathy with the sitter. Many years later, tears would swell in his eyes as he would tell me of his friendship with the great Aboriginal artist. Mervyn Bishop, Rennie Ellis, Carol Jerrems and Lewis Morley give a much needed shot of Viagra to the photography scene from the late 1960s to the 1980s and the Portrait Gallery has a strong showing of their work.

It is into the 21st century that the Portrait Gallery collection comes into its own and through acquisition and commission assembles some of the best work in the portrait genre in its day. Highlights include Brent Harris's portrait of Leo Schofield, Brook Andrew's Marcia Langton, and the work of Nicholas Harding, Rick Amor, Greg Weight, Jenny Sages, Ricky Maynard and William Yang. These are works which challenge, confront and occasionally amuse. Howard Arkley's image of Nick Caveis a one-off maverick piece and deservedly one of most popular portraits in the gallery's collection. One surprising omission in the book is eX de Medici's popular portrait of Midnight Oil titled Nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground, 2001.

Gallery handbooks are a somewhat old-fashioned concept, but they are popular with visitors and are good for gallery revenue. In the case of this young institution, this companion guide marks the road travelled and counts the runs which it already has on the board.

National Portrait Gallery: The Companion edited by Angus Trumble, Joanna Gilmour and Sarah Engledow, Canberra, National Portrait Gallery.