Jonathan Knowlton, painter, printmaker and educator, was born in New York City on February 22, 1937. He was a graduate of Milton Academy, in Milton Massachusetts, and received his BFA from Yale University and his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. Knowlton was a Fulbright scholar and was awarded a series of Canada Council and University research grants between the years 1977 and 1989. He used one of these grants to live in Paris where he studied printmaking at Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter.

In 1966, Knowlton moved to Edmonton, Canada. He taught at the University of Alberta where he established the printmaking department. He retired from teaching in 2002.

Knowlton's work is represented in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the University of California Berkeley Art Museum, the University of Alberta Art Gallery, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Alberta Art Foundation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Fine Art Museums.

Jonathan Knowlton died on August 19, 2004 in Edmonton, Canada.