Gervasi arrived in America in 1908, with drawing already a favorite passtime. He attended the New York School of Industrial Arts before volunteering for Army service during World War I. A wound suffered during the Battle of Somme in France deprived him of his right arm. Following recuperation and release from the Army in 1919, Gervasi began a ten-year period of retraining himself to use of his left hand, with four years of study at the Art Students League with Robert Henri, George Luks, and Frank Vincent DuMond. Among his other instructors were Edward Penfield, George Bridgeman, and Henry Rittenberg. In 1927 he returned to Italy for three years of independent work.
His honors included awards from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Salmagundi Club, the Allied Artists of America (of which he was president, 1955-57), the American Watercolor Society, the Baltimore Watercolor Club, and the Hudson Valley Art Association.
Gervasi who worked extensively in watercolor as well as oil, was known for his cityscapes, especially of New York. However, following his permanent move to Marfa in west Texas in 1959, he turned to painting the landscape of the Southwest.
