Herbert Coetzee was a largely self-taught artist, except for a six-month training he attended in 1949 at the Continental School of Art in Cape Town, where he studied under <a href=" https://findartvalue.com/artist/maurice-van-essche">Maurice van Essche</a>. He was subsequently awarded a bursary by the Koninklijke Acedemie voor Schone Kunsten en de Hogere Institute in Antwerp, Belgium, between 1958