Obsessed by the city: Iain Gale on the other painters of the School of London

FRANCIS BACON

Born Dublin 1909. Settled London 1929, and, self-taught, began to paint. 1944 destroyed most work to date and set his style with the shockingly savage, existentialist Three Studies of Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. Died Madrid 1992.

MICHAEL ANDREWS

Born Norwich 1928. Studied under William Coldstream at the Slade. Met Bacon, Auerbach and Freud in the 1950s. 1957 painted The Colony Room; the following year had first solo show at Beaux Arts Gallery. Died July 1995.

LUCIAN FREUD

Born Berlin 1922. Emigrated to Britain 1933. Studied at the Central School and at Goldsmiths'. In the 1950s changed style from surreal, neo-Romanticism to loose painterly realism. Lives and works in London.

R B KITAJ

Born Ohio USA 1932. Studied New York, Vienna, Oxford and RCA 1959-61. In 1976 curated "The Human Clay" (Hayward Gallery), coining the phrase "the School of London". 1989 published First Diasporist Manifesto. Works in London.

LEON KOSSOFF

Born London 1926 to Russian emigre parents. In the early Fifties studied at St Martin's and under David Bomberg, met Auerbach, whose heavy, painterly style he shares. In the late 1970s his palette and subjects became lighter.