Felrath Hines and N. Jay Jaffee met around 1947 when they were both decorating china in Brooklyn. Although neither worked at the china factory for very long, their friendship lasted a lifetime. Hines, who had previously attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, continued his studies at the Pratt Institute while working as a framer. Eventually he became a painting conservator at the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.. Jaffee supported himself by working in the printing industry while photographing his native New York and taking classes with Sid Grossman at the Art Students League, an experience that strengthened his interest in documenting urban subjects. Only in their later years was either man able to devote himself full time to his art. Jaffee pursued landscape photography, whereas Hines turned from vigorously painted compositions of figures and cubist landscapes to geometric abstractions. In his painting "Morning Attack", crisp-edged, asymmetrically positioned forms are carefully orchestrated through a subtle and harmonious palette.