Durno was born in around 1745,[1] the son of a brewery proprietor who lived the later part of his life in an area of West London then known as the "Kensington Gravel Pits" (approximately the current Notting Hill Gate).
[1] He also worked as a copyist for West, and in around 1771 assisted John Hamilton Mortimer on his ceiling paintings at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.
[1] As well as attempting to forge a career as a history painter, Durno worked as a copyist in Rome, his productions including a large copy of Raphael's Transfiguration.
Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke, who saw it that year, wrote in a letter : "It is most likely the last copy that will ever be done, as the Monks of Montorio swear they will give no more permissions for fear some hurt may come to so valuable an original.
[1] The copy of the Transfiguration probably the one now in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, where it was long attributed to Anton Raphael Mengs.