In the 1950's Life Magazine decided to run an illustrated series entitled The Epic of Man. An artist was needed who could not only illustrate the works with artistic proficiency, but who could also research each of the historical periods of the series to verify details to be included in the paintings, and depict them with accuracy. In effect, the assignment would require the combined skills of an anthropologist, archaeologist, engineer and historian; in addition to those of an artist.
After many interviews, Life chose Alton Tobey to be this artist. Tobey painted the illustrations for the first of the series, Neolithic Man after extensive anthropological research into the prehistoric age, and after hours of study at the Smithsonian Institution to be sure that all the images he created were as historically accurate as possible. This attention to detail characterizes all his work. American Artist magazine describes Tobey as being "blessed with insatiable curiosity" and having "a consuming passion for knowledge for its own sake [that is] largely responsible for his phenomenal career."
In the course of this career, Tobey has produced hundreds of paintings, dozens of murals and portraits of many notable personalities of both this and past centuries. The images below are some of the original paintings that will be on exhibit at the one-man show of his work in New Rochelle from October 22nd through November 14th.
FOR THE LIFE MAGAZINE "IMAGES OF MAN" SERIES:
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In 1905, Russian sailors aboard The Potemkin sailing on the Black Sea refused orders from their superiors on board to fire on their comrades, resulting in a mutiny that was a prelude to the Russian Revolution. Rendering of the details required many hours of research by Tobey to validate period uniforms, insignia and other objects that appear in the paintings.
 for Life Magazine |
 for Life Magazine |
ABOVE LEFT: Alton Tobey recreated this scene of human massacre from Russian history in his painting Bloody Sunday, which depicts events at the Narva Gate in St. Petersburg, Russia on January 22, 1905. Citizens attempted to present a petition to Czar Nicholas II about working conditions, and met with a slaughtering attack by Cossacks. This was one of the significant events which eventually led to the Russian Revolution.
"During the course of his research for this painting, the artist needed to research the uniforms worn by the Imperial Army, and study sabres, crutches, streets, shop fronts and photos of the Narva Gate. Beyond this, however, he pursued the human prototypes he needed to portray the victims of Czarist oppression.
"Luck led him to an actual survivor of the massacre, a man who was twelve years old when he found himself a part of a fleeing mob. The man recalled the frightening shock of advancing horses, how close he came to being trampled by their pounding hooves, and how, finally, he managed to find his way home, unobserved, by a circuitous route. He described his mother's joy on seeing her child alive, how she embraced him weeping, and then, as she began to remove his coat, how they both stared open-mouthed as it split precisely down the middle of the back. He had come that close to a Cossack sabre!
"This account of a hairs breadth encounter with death was cherished by Tobey for its drama and emotion, and, inveterate researcher that he is, he used it to confound a fellow artist who protested that it would have been more accurate to show the Cossacks using knouts. 'Was ever a knout known to slice a coat in two?' was Tobey's triumphant response."
ABOVE RIGHT: Death for Dostoevsky was ordered by Nicholas I in 1849 because the novelist belonged to a subversive society. In Semenovsky Square, St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky kneels in the left background, facing his fate. The entire event was a sadistic scheme orchestrated by the Czar, who informed them later that their sentences had been commuted and that they were to be exiled to Siberia, where the writer spent four years.
Tobey's assignments for Life magazine included Neolithic Man, The Mycaenean Age, The Shang Dynasty, and five paintings for The Russian Revolution. (Three of these, above, are in the New Rochelle exhibition.) These and other Tobey paintings were the subject of an extensive article by Eve Medoff on the artist: Alton Tobey: The Artist as Researcher that appeared in the May 1976 issue of American Artist magazine, and from which the above quotes are taken. Dozens of other paintings spanning a period of time from prehistoric to modern ages have been created by the artist for many books and magazines, and his research for detail often sent him to far reaching places.
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From a Tobey original painting in the New Rochelle exhibition: A high priest makes a ritual offering at the Temple of the Jaguar and the Temple of the Mask at the Great Plaza, a Mayan ceremonial shrine ca. 400 B.C.
NAVIGATION: NEXT PAGE - THE PORTRAITS PREVIOUS PAGE - INTRODUCTION
FOURTH PAGE - THE AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES
PAGE 5 - SUMMARY BIO & NOTES
PAGE 6 - ABOUT THE NRCA
All artwork
© Alton Tobey, 2003