Jacob Landau was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 17, 1917. He began drawing at the age of three, and at age twelve he began studying at the Graphic Sketch Club, now known as the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial. In 1934 he won a competition in Scholastic magazine for his illustration for Kipling's Jungle Book, and won again the following, earning a scholarship from the Museum School of Industrial Art to study illustration, printmaking and painting. After graduating in 1939 he moved to New York City, where he experimented with a variety of styles, treatments and media, and found work as a comic book and pulp artist.

In 1943, Landau was drafted into the armed forces, serving two years overseas in the Mediterranean Theater. His service in Italy included work as the art editor, illustrator, photographer, and reporter for At Ease, a special services magazine. Landau was discharged in 1946 and he used the G.I. Bill to further study art.

After spending a year at New York's New School for Social Research, Landau moved to Paris with his family to study at the Academie Julian and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. He met printmaker Leonard Baskin, who taught him woodcut.

From 1954 to 1957 Landau taught at the Philadelphia College of Art before moving to Pratt Institute where he taught for 20 years. In 1975, he became a faculty member of the Artist teacher Institute, a 10-day summer residency program sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Landau exhibited at the Galerie Paul Lebar in Paris in 1952, Cober Gallery in New York City in 1960, New Jersey State Museum in 1968, Whitney Museum in New York City in 1969, Associated American Artists in New York City in 1970, Philadelphia Art Alliance in 1981, California State College in San Bernardino in 1983, Noyes Museum in New Jersey in 1983, Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, DC in 1983, Temple Judea Museum of Kenneth Israel in Pennsylvania in 1995, Monmouth University in New Jersey in 1997, and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey in 2001.

Jacob Landau died on November 24, 2001 in New Jersey.