Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Allen, James C.
ALLEN, JAMES C. (d. 1831), line-engraver, the son of a Smithfield salesman, was a native of London. He was a pupil of William Bernard Cooke, in whose studio he worked for several years after the termination of his apprenticeship, and in conjunction with whom he engraved and published in 1821 ‘Views of the Colosseum,’ from drawings by Major-General Cockburn, and in 1825 ‘Views in the South of France, chiefly on the Rhone,’ from drawings by Peter De Wint, after original sketches by John Hughes. He likewise engraved a spirited plate of the ‘Defeat of the Spanish Armada,’ after P. J. de Loutherbourg, for the ‘Gallery of Greenwich Hospital;’ ‘St. Mawes, Cornwall,’ after Turner, for Cooke's ‘Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England;’ ‘Portsmouth from Spithead,’ after Stanfield; and ‘The Temple of Isis,’ after Cockburn. He excelled especially in etching, and was much employed on illustrations for books. Weak in constitution and eccentric in his habits, he died in middle life soon after 1831.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878.]