Tobey's attention to detail, along with his ability to evoke a profound emotional response from people who saw his murals and other work soon drew the attention of the publishing world. Seeing art as a form of communication and education, he enthusiastically embraced these opportunities to address thousands or even millions of people through the publication of the images he created into print and other media. All images on this page lead to pages with more information, which can be accessed by clicking on the illustrations shown or on the highlighted "More details. . . " links in each caption below. .

Life Magazine

LIFE - Apr. 29, 1957

LIFE - Jan. 13, 1957

            In 1957 Tobey was approached by the publishers of LIFE magazine to illustrate a series of articles they were planning on a comprehensive history of civilization for a number of upcoming issues. The historic art he created for this series can be seen in greater detail by visiting our pages linked to the two magazine covers above that featured his work, or see More details. . . .

Mycenaean  warriors  in a battle scene from "Epic of Man"

              The phenomenal success of the LIFE series prompted the publishers to create a hardcover collectible book in 1961 covering many of the magazine subjects, with expanded content. Tobey was called upon to create more paintings for the book. One is shown above, linked to our Epic of Man page, or see More details. . .

 

The Golden Books
History of  The United States

              With over 350 separate paintings in its twelve volumes, Tobey's work for this young people's series was probably the most extensive project ever undertaken by him in publishing. To see representative samples from these pages click on the book cover image above, or see More details . . .

 

Man and Power

            Dozens of Tobey's technical drawings and paintings of historic scenes about man's use of energy from prehistoric to modern times were included in this text. Click on the image above to see over a dozen of them that are included in the book, or see More details. . .

 

"Portrait of Antonio Stradivari" One of the paintings in the "American Artist" feature article on Tobey's paintings & methods.

            In May, 1976 American Artist magazine honored Tobey with a 12-page article on his many accomplishments with over a dozen illustrations about his artistic methodology. The complete text and images of this article, republished here with permission, can be seen by clicking on the painting above, or see More details. . .

            In addition to the thousands of limited and open edition prints of Tobey's original paintings that were distributed internationally, a number of his paintings were memorialized in the form of collectibles. The image link above and "details" highlight below connect to a feature article from the August, 1981 edition of Plate Collector magazine that addresses his art in general and illustrates some of his paintings that were reproduced in this medium or see More details. . .

            Thousands of prints and other reproductions of Alton Tobey's original paintings of religious subjects can be found worldwide. A page containing a number of these original paintings in the collection of the artist's estate can be found on his Religious Paintings page. More Details. . .