The painter, Guy Gervis, has died in France at the age of 92.
Guy exhibited widely in Burgundy and beyond. He was admitted as an associate member of La Société des Artistes Français and was given a Médaille d’Argent while a member of la Société Académique, « ARTS-SCIENCES-LETTRES. In 2013 he was awarded the Mayor’s annual Carte Blanche exhibition by the town of Autun. Guy’s pictures hang in homes in France, England, the USA, Canada, and in restaurants across the Morvan.
Guy was born in London on 24 May 1931 and brought up in Tunbridge Wells. His father Harvey Gervis was an orthopaedic surgeon and his mother Sybil a physiotherapist. As a boy, Guy attended Sherborne School (Harper House) where he developed a love of drawing, painting, and singing.
After his National Service in Malaysia, Guy took up a place at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1954 in Architecture before completing his studies at the Architecture Association. A fellow student described Guy as multi-talented as well as a creative architect, a beautiful painter, and guitarist, with a delicious sense of humour. Family and friends fondly remember the wide range of songs Guy sang to a guitar, often outside on summer evenings in a French country garden.
While married to his first wife, Elizabeth Koch, with whom he had three children, Guy carried out architectural research in Brazil and taught Architecture in Ghana.
Later, he consulted on an architecture project in Sierra Leone and worked for the Greater London Council (GLC) before setting up private practice in London.
In 1972, he married Marga Bosher (née Chirovici). They went on painting expeditions with his aunt Ruth Gervis, a well-known illustrator of children’s books who had taught Guy when she was Art mistress at Sherborne School.
In 1993, Guy and Marga retired. They left London and moved to France, where they restored an old farmhouse using many traditional methods of the Morvan region. Guy combined his skills as an architect with his capacity for physical labour, working with Marga and local artisans as the house took shape with a new roof, stronger beams, new doorways, and a restored interior.
On moving to France, Guy changed careers becoming a full-time painter for 30 years. He and Marga integrated into a vibrant artistic community that came together to share work, hold exhibitions, and enjoy celebratory meals. Guy had long been interested in megalithic sites, visiting and painting them in Malta, Andalusia, Bourg-Charente as well as at Avebury in Wiltshire. As the Celtic site of Bibracte was being excavated at Mont Beuvray, he began to draw the entwined trees of the ancient forests and to paint the Burgundy landscapes.
Guy Rowsell Gervis died on 11 January 2024 in France. He is survived by his wife Marga; children: Adam, Misia, and Heti; his step-children: and five grandchildren.
Guy Rowsell Gervis (1931-2024)
Son of Walter Harvey Gervis (1901-1981), FRCS, and Sybil Adelaide Rowsell Gervis (née Chadwick) (1897-1986), of Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Brother of John Harvey Gervis (1929-2015), attended Sherborne School (Abbey House) 1942-1947.
Nephew of Henry Shorland (Shor) Gervis (1897-1968), science master at Sherborne School, 1921-1964, and Ruth Streatfeild Gervis (1894-1988), art mistress at Sherborne School, September 1941-July 1953. For a few months around Dunkirk [26 May-4 June 1940], Guy was evacuated with his sister to Sherborne, staying with Shor and Ruth Gervis at their home Nortons (now Olympus) in The Avenue.
Attended Temple Grove School, Heron’s Ghyll, East Sussex.
Attended Sherborne School (Harper House) January 1945-December 1949, where he was taught physics by his uncle, Shor Gervis, and art by his aunt, Ruth Gervis – Guy wrote later that ‘The fact that I am currently an active artist must owe much to her.’ A member of the Upper 6th (Group IIIA), School Prefect, Head of House, 2nd XV (1948, 1949), Trebles swimming (1947, 1948, 1949), 1st Class Gym, CSM in CCF, PT Instructor with badge, member of Duffers and Alchemists.
In 1965/6 Guy designed a house for Shor and Ruth Gervis in the garden of their home Nortons (now Olympus) in The Avenue, Sherborne. The house was named ‘New Nortons’, but was subsequently renamed ‘Nortons’.