Little is known of Joseph Kyle's youth except that he was left an orphan at an early age. His interest in art eventually led him to move to Philadelphia around 1834. He studied first with Thomas Sully and later with Bass Otis and subsequently embarked upon a career as a portraitist. After acquiring a modest reputation, he moved to New York City in 1846 and, in the following year, began exhibiting his portraits at the National Academy.

While continuing to work as a portraitist, Kyle also painted panoramas during the late 1840s. Two of these, Pilgrim's Progress and another of the Mississippi River, were critical and popular successes but they offered little financial reward for the artist and his subsequent works in this genre were executed in collaberation with other artists.
Kyle travelled frequently in search of new commissions but, around 1859, he became ill while engaged in New Haven, Connecticut. He never thoroughly recovered, and produced few works during the last years of his life.