His best work is representative of a school of regional realism that arose in the 1930s as a response to European Modernism.
Wolfe was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee.
After studies in Chicago at the Academy of Fine Arts and at the Art Students League of New York under John French Sloan, he went to Paris to train under Pierre Lauren at the Académie Julian.
[1] His works Mooney's Place, Women Bathing, and Brother Matthew Preaching are held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
He assisted Dahl-Wolfe in her photographic career, painting backgrounds for her sittings and helping when business problems arose.