Studied at The Art Institute of Chicago and worked as a fashion illustrator for McCall’s magazine. Tobey had his first solo exhibition in 1917 at M. Knoedler & Co., New York. After converting to the Baha’i World Faith, he began his lifelong traveling. Tobey moved to Seattle to teach at the Cornish School of Allied Arts. In the following years, he traveled to Paris, the Middle East, and finally Devonshire, England. Tobey taught at Dartington Hall, while also traveling to Mexico, the United States and Asia. Returning to Seattle in 1938, he studied music theory and had his first retrospective at the palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Tobey became part of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and was awarded a Guggenheim International Award. He won the City of Venice painting prize at the Venice Biennale and became the first American painter to have a solo show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Tobey passed away in Basel, Switzerland in 1976.