The painter de Ritz

The myth of de Ritz, when first we heard of him, was that of an itinerant late-nineteenth century painter (a view echoed in Una Platts’ 1980 Nineteenth Century New Zealand artists: a guide & handbook). Seeing the paintings, one imagined a Romantic wanderer at makeshift easel, smoke rising lazily from a fire whereupon a billy boiled, a river before, a tent beyond: a remittance man, perhaps, a shamed scion escaping old Europe for Antipodean bush, fleeing heartacheor financial scandal or the outcome of a duel.