John Duvall was born in Margate in 1815 to John and Mary Duvall. He lived in Ramsgate during the early 1840's but then seems to have moved around quite a bit. He lived in Sunderland and later Maidstone where he met and married Lavinia Cockburne Morfill in 1848. By the late 1850’s, he had moved to London where lived with his wife and children in Dorchester Place, Marylebone and had established himself as an artist. Around 1852, the family moved again, this time to Ipswich where he was to remain for the rest of his life. They lived in Clarkson Street, Westgate Street and Handford Villas.

Duvall had initially focussed on portrait and figure painting, however, with the advent of photography he decided to paint animals such as horses and dogs. His work was well received and he gained several commissions from wealthy landowners to paint their favourite horses often engaged in sporting activities.
He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1855 with these types of scenes as well as at the British Institute and the Royal Society of British Artist.

He enjoyed considerable success in Suffolk and is considered part of the ‘Suffolk School’. He was a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Society where he exhibited regularly and became the first chairman in 1875. Duvall also provided illustrations for the Suffolk Horse Society's Stud Book. He died in Ipswich on 13 May 1892.

Examples of his paintings are held by the Colchester & Ipswich Museums, the National Trust for Scotland, Sheffield Museums and the Suffolk Punch Heavy Horse Museum.