George Wolfe (British 1834-1890) Bristol Floating Harbour Watercolour Signed, titled and dated 1856 lower right 24.5 x 34.5cm (9½ x 13½ in.) Provenance: The Estate of Christopher and Rosemary Warren Wolfe was born and lived most of his life in the Clifton area of Bristol. The present work is a relatively early example done at the age of 22. Although Wolfe went on to work in both watercolour and oil, most of his early output was in watercolour. For a time he shared a studio with fellow artist, Samuel Phillips Jackson who also specialised in marine and landscape views, and the pair undoubtedly had an influence on each other. Opened in 1809, Bristol floating harbour was part of an ambitious transformation of the whole Bristol dock area. With the growth of northern ports such as Liverpool, there was increased competition for the tobacco trade and the limitations of the original dock area meant that Bristol was losing trade. The expansion project secured the city's future as one of England's foremost trading ports in the nineteenth century.