Born in Newfoundland in 1858 Ernest Ehlers came to Bristol with his widowed mother while still a child and lived in Cotham Grove. He studied art at Karlsruhe in Germany and on return made painting his profession, living for a time in Edinburgh. He gained a reputation for landscape painting, notably woodland scenes decked with flowers. In 1896 he was elected a member of the Royal Watercolor Association.

He was of a slight stature with a quiet and cheerful manner. He made many friends among the local artists who would drop into to his studio, a glazed lean-to in Kingsdown. He suggested forming a group to meet regularly and paint together, but was told that Muller, Prout and Samuel Jackson had also tried and failed. However remembering...