Theo Tobiasse's global popularity rests on a distinctive bittersweet quality all his own. Born in Palestine in 1927 but raised in occupied Paris, Tobiasse spent the crucial years of his youth in hiding from the Nazis. After the war he worked as a commercial artist until 1961, when he turned to painting full time. Chaim Potok, in his Theo Tobiasse: Artist in Exile (published in 1986 by Rizzoli), has best described the artist's je ne sais quoi: "One cannot escape the feeling that he uses colors and words to conquer the evils he has experienced in the flesh, hence, the lively primitivism...and the stately themes of the tribe."

In 1989 the dedication of the Tobiasse designed Chapelle Saint-Saveur in Le Cannet marked another milestone in the rising career of this illustrious artist.