Painter and printmaker Jesse Allen was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1936, into a British family who had immigrated from England in the 19th century. As a teen he was sent to school in England, where he eventually attended Oxford University and graduated with a degree in modern languages. After relocating to San Francisco, California in the early 1960s to teach at Stanford University, he began painting. He would eventually retire from teaching to focus entirely on art, learning intaglio and lithography printmaking and working in oils and watercolors as well. He continues to live and work in Northern California.