Mounted Kiwi Riffleman - E. Keller Early 20th Century

Signed lower left: E. Keller Dated: 1900 Dimensions with frame: 30 x 28 cm

Could not identify this painter E. Keller. It is always a mystery that no memory was made of artists whose works that have reached us attest to a real talent ... The theme of this drawing with watercolor pen is also a real enigma, not about to his identification, but more by the choice of this theme: a "Mounted Kiwi Riffle", in other words a New Zealand rider. The artist has dated his work: 1900. Who at that time in Europe (except in the UK of course!)
Has heard about this archipelago Antipodes? At the beginning of the 20th century, the history of New Zealand is quite recent (although historians believe that its first inhabitants, Polynesians, settle there in the second half of the 10th century). Under the domination of the British crown, New Zealand is built, and the uniforms of his army are not fixed.
Although the country participates alongside the Australians in the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1900), it is only after 1907 (when it becomes a British dominion) that uniforms military are established with homogeneity. Our rider wears a headgear borrowed from the Australian army, the "Aussie Slough Hat by Akubra", then in vogue in the New Zealand army next door, but it will give up after 1916. This hat has a wide brim door with one of the raised sides, so as to be able to put in the position of pulling without being embarrassed by his hat. Like the Australian Mounted Rifflemen, the New Zealand riders who participated in the Boer War provided their own uniforms, horses and equipment.

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