Deverell was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1827, but his family moved back to London when he was two years old. He met D. G. Rossetti while he was a student and the two of them shared a studio in 1851; the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites on his work is obvious. He was only twenty-seven when he died, but his career had shown promise in the four paintings he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1847 and 1853.