Calder's father and grandfather were both well known sculptors and his mother was a professional portrait painter who had studied at the Academie Julien in Paris. After army training till 1919, when he received a degree from Stevens college, he worked as an engineer but abandoned that to work his way as a seaman to New York where he decided to become an artist. He had showed early promise in drawing and model making. In 1926 he went to Paris where he made his first articulated model sculptures of circus toys. He spent the next few years between Paris and New York and had his first exhibition in 1929 in New York City. In Paris he became friends with Joan Miro who obviously influenced Calder's work, particularly the mobile abstract sculpture for which he becam famous. He also painted and was a prolific print-maker. Calder's work is in many permanent collections around the world.