Mark Tobey - Early Years

Early Years

Tobey was the youngest of four children born to George Tobey, a carpenter and house builder, and Emma Cleveland Tobey—his mother was over 40 when Tobey was born. The Tobeys were devout Congregationalists. Tobey's father carved animals of red stone and sometimes drew animals for the young Tobey to cut out with scissors. In 1893, his family settled in Chicago. As a youth, Tobey studied art for a brief period at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1906 to 1908, but like the others of the Northwest School, Tobey was mostly self-taught.

In 1911, he moved to New York where he worked as a fashion illustrator for McCall's magazine and made some money as a portraitist. His first one-man show was held at Knoedler & Company, in lower Manhattan, New York City, in 1917.

In 1918, Tobey came in contact with New York portrait artist and Bahá'í Juliet Thompson (also an associate of Khalil Gibran) and posed for her. During the session Tobey read some Bahá'í literature and accepted an invitation to Green Acre where he converted. In the following years, Tobey delved into works of Arabian literature and teachings of East Asian philosophy and with his conversion led him to explore the representation of the spiritual in art.