Irish portrait painter who lived most of his adult life in England. He also produced a translation of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote (published posthumously, with his surname spelled Jarvis, in 1742).

Moving to England in his teens, Jervas became an apprentice to the painter Sir Godfrey Kneller (Kneller, Sir Godfrey, Baronet). He later studied drawing in Rome and then returned (c. 1709) to England. Succeeding Kneller, he became court painter to the English kings George I and George II. His home became a centre for literary figures, among them Alexander Pope (Pope, Alexander) and Jonathan Swift (Swift, Jonathan), whose portraits Jervas painted, in addition to that of George II (1728).