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| Joseph Louis Fermin Cerveau |
Also known as Savannah’s Artist
Portrayed by Jane Millette, the great, great granddaughter of Fermin Cerveau
Fermin lived his last nine years in Natchez, but his life began far away, in present day Turkey.
His father was a successful French merchant who was living with his family in Asia Minor. In 1818 he was summoned to return to France by the government, but was warned of danger due to the French Revolution. Therefore, he loaded all of the family possessions, including their goats and chickens, as though he was complying with the summons, but when they sailed across the Mediterranean they continued on across the Atlantic to the United States, landing at Boston and eventually settling in Philadelphia where he once again became a successful merchant.
By his early twenties Fermin was earning his living as an artist. He created some canvasses in the romantic style of the period with his preference being a highly detailed topographic style.
Fermin married Mary O’Rourke, and they moved to Georgia in 1836 due to the health of her father. There Fermin opened a studio to teach drawing and miniature painting, and to sketch all types of buildings, landscapes and whatever was requested. He painted scenes on the inside of railroad passenger couches and for various businesses throughout the city. One of his works graced the steamship “S.S. Savannah”, which was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. He worked in Savannah for 50 years operating a general store, cigar store as well as painting. His most famous work is a panorama of Savannah, Georgia, which details the city in 1837. The original hangs in the home of the Georgia Historical Society.
In 1887 his wife died and he moved to Natchez to live with his daughter, Sophia and her husband, Samuel Morgan Millette, a cotton merchant who had rode with the Jeff Davis Legion during the Civil War.
By the age of 81 Fermin had stopped painting, but he still kept a small studio and did some work that brought him pleasure. He created a papiere mache model of St. Mary’s Cathedral, which he loved, that was taken to Chicago in 1893 for display at the World’s Columbian Exposition. It was so large his grandson, Robert Lee Millette, could stand inside. It was so large that a wall in the house had to be removed to get it out.
Fermin’s obituary commented on the death of a venerable gentleman, but his exact burial place was unknown and unmarked for 108 years. In 2004 his final resting place was identified and a tombstone was placed with the saying “Savannah’s Artist.”
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