Channy, 1976-77. Geoff La Gerche (b1940). Oil on canvas. Geoff La Gerche studied at Caulfield Technical College, Melbourne, and the Royal College of Art, London. A printmaker as well as a painter, in the 1970s, he made a number of larger-than-life-size portraits based on photographs, and was a frequent entrant in the Art Gallery of New Sourth Wales’s Archibald Prize. The subject of this portrait, Chandler Coventry, was La Gerche’s Sydney gallerist. From an established grazing family in New England, Coverntry amassed over several decades on of the most important private collections of contemporary art in Australia. In the late 1970s, he offered his collection to the City of Armidale on the understanding that the New England Regional Art Museum would be built to house it. The museum opened in 1983. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.