BORN and educated in Bridgeton, Mr. Coventry began life as a draughtsman-apprentice to an engraver. But his heart was set on other things. At the age of sixteen he began to contribute both landscape and figure pictures to the exhibitions of the Glasgow Institute, and he studied morning and evening under Robert Greenlees at the Glasgow School of art. By advice of Mr. Greenlees, who considered that his progress justified the step, he definitely adopted art as a profession, and, going to Paris in 1887, studied under Bouguereau and Fleury. Since then he has shewn pictures at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, and all the chief exhibitions of Europe and America. A number of his more important pictures have found a place in notable collections, including those of Queen Margharita of Italy and Mr. Andrew Carnegie. In 1892 two of his canvasses, "Loch Ard" and "Trawlers Mending Nets," were among the best praised pictures of the season on the walls of Burlington House. They made his name known far and wide, and brought him many commissions. Besides expressing himself in oil and water colour, e is a master of black and white, and his "Girl in Snow," shown at the black and white exhibition of the Glasgow Institute, will not soon be forgotten. Sunlight and open-air effects are his forte. In all his work there is breeziness, truth to nature, and freedom from affectation. In 1889 he was elected a Member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours, and in 1906 obtained the coveted position of A.R.S.A.

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