The Mill, oil on canvasboard, 12 x 16, signed lower left: F Gervasi, A native of Palemo, Sicily, Gervasi immigrated to the United States in 1908 and settled with his parents in New York. As a teenager, he studied drawing, and later enrolled in a night class for industrial arts. Gervasi was severely wounded in battle during World War I in September 1918, causing him to lose his right arm. The right-handed artist would spend over ten years learning how to shift his painting technique to his less-dominant hand, an experience he described as an adjustment of the mind. After the war, Gervasi studied in Italy and France for several years before returning to New York to attend the Art Students League. A later major commission from oilman George T. Abell led Gervasi to relocate to Marfa, Texas, where he painted 30 historical scenes in the oil field. Gervasi lived in Marfa for his remaining years. He is remembered as a nationally renowned American landscapist, and the only Texas landscape artist to become a member of the National Academy of Design.