Known as "Edd" to his family and friends, he and his younger brother, Elmer "Lee" Allen (1896–1971), loved the rugged outdoor life in Montana and the values of persistence and self-reliance it instilled.
It was also during this time that James began developing his skills as an artist, concentrating on outdoor scenes portraying men at work.
[14] Allen and Grace returned to New York City in November 1925 aboard the SS America,[15] not, as asserted by some sources, due to the economic realities of the Great Depression some years later.
[16] He resumed work in commercial illustration and continued to hone his skills as a printmaker under Joseph Pennell and William Auerbach-Levy.
During this period he also studied with Arshile Gorky and Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central School of Art[17] as well as with sculptor Naum M. Los to improve his sense of 3-dimensional form.
David W. Keihl writes "James E. Allen valued the worth of hard work and personal ingenuity for survival.
[19] In 1932, Allen first entered his prints in juried exhibitions and his work began to receive widespread academic and critical acclaim.
[21] He took for inspiration the dinosaurs displayed at the "A Century of Progress" World's Fair, which had opened the previous year in Chicago, and the work of Charles R. Knight.
In scenes of steelworkers such as "The Builders", "The Connectors", "Skyriders" and "Up Above the World", he creates "a vivid and suggestive picture of the powerful rhythm of daily labour and of the fearless readiness of the workers to perform their allotted tasks".
[24] In 1937 he received a commission to create twelve lithographs for the United States Pipe and Foundry Company, showing laborers installing giant pipelines in varied settings.
[17] In 1938 the Graphic Arts Division of the Smithsonian's Museum of American History presented a solo exhibition of his work, further elevating his stature as a master printmaker.
As one reviewer remarked: "avoiding the present-day epidemic of social protest ... these are graphic depictions of men at work, healthy, satisfied to build for tomorrow, proud in their strength and manual skill".
He later developed a degenerative brain disease, diagnosed as Huntington's chorea,[28] and one of the consequences of his illness was that he destroyed many of the preparatory sketches for the prints.
[29] A more comprehensive catalog of his works, including Allen's illustration art, is now available as part of an online exhibit about the artist at Stanford University.