Chandler Coventry (1924-1999) was born into one of the established grazing families in New England, NSW, Australia. These wealthy families were, at that time, Australia's upper class, and in the first half of the 1900s, if you were going to be born in Australia, you could do a lot worse than being a cocky's son. Young Master Coventry was very well educated in Sydney schools, and had a passion for the fine arts.

As a young chap he worked most of his life in and around galleries, finally opening his own gallery in Hargreave Street, Paddington, in 1970. The focus was on contemporary Australian art, but Coventry also collected extensively. From that time until his death in 1999, he became one of Australia's best known art patrons and collectors. The Coventry Gallery in Sydney is named after him, and is a vital part of Sydney's gallery space.

It was basically his pressure for a place to house his important and vast collection that enabled the New England Regional Art Museum to be built.

As displayed, his collection has over 400 works of art, focusing on expressionist and abstractionist painters with some figurative artists and includes paintings by Ralph Balson, Peter Booth, Gunter Christmann, Janet Dawson, Elaine Haxton, Leah MacKinnon, Michael Taylor, Dick Watkins and Brett Whiteley, all of which deserve rich, detailed nodes, none of which are noded as of this writing.

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