Born within seven years of each other, and dying within five, these contemporary artists developed a similar style of painting, epitomizing the 'swagger portrait' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They knew one another, if not well, but wrote to and about the others, gifted paintings, and shared their admiration - while also rivalling one another for commissions, and even, at times, painting the same people. Their style is rich, painterly, and highly coloured, making spontaneity into an art through the apparently contradictory means of practice, deliberation and skill.