Jeanot Burgi - 1963 - watercolor on Japanese - self-portrait in profile - signed - Sold

• Jeannot Bürgi, also known as Hans, Jeanot, Janot or Jernot Bürgi, (Vienna, 25 June 1939 – Walenstadt, 17 November 2011) was a Swiss sculptor, painter and draftsman, who lived and worked in the Netherlands for many years.

Life and work
Jeannot Bürgi was probably born in Vienna as Igor Boris Charduchin. His parents were of Ukrainian descent. Bürgi's father was part of an International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, where he met Bürgi's mother who worked in a field hospital there. His parents went to live in Vienna, where his father published a (resistance) newspaper for Ukrainians. According to Bürgi, his birth was 'an accident'.
Two months after his birth, his parents were arrested by the Germans. Nothing more was heard from them after that. Shortly before their arrest, Bürgi's parents placed him with a lawyer friend in Vienna, where he lived until he was placed in a state orphanage in 1942. After the war, Bürgi was sent to Switzerland to recuperate, because he turned out to have tuberculosis. He came to live with the childless Bürgi couple, was adopted by them and given the baptismal name Johannes. In 1954, he was sent to a French boarding school, where his name was changed to Jeannot, 'little Jan'.
In the autumn of 1955 he fled the boarding school and wandered for a long time through France. He returned to Switzerland where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis again. During an 18-month treatment in Davos he developed the ambition to become a sculptor.
From 1959 to 1960 he received his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule Luzern. He worked in the Swiss cities of Bürglen, Lucerne and Davos until 1962. As a sculptor he was mainly involved in construction projects, the execution of sources, industrial design and the design of church organs.
In April 1962 he came to the Netherlands because of his love affair, with the intention of travelling further to his uncle in America. However, he continued to live in Utrecht and married in 1963. From this marriage two daughters and two sons were born, including the chef Caspar.[6] Mainly due to a large commission from the city of Utrecht, as a sculptor for the monument conservation, his Dutch period was the most successful in his career. During this period he lived successively in Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Doorn, and divorced his wife. In 1973 he started a relationship with the daughter of mayor Barend ter Haar Romeny, with whom he settled in Switzerland in 1978, where he remarried. Four children were born from this relationship.
In 1981 he founded Atelier B81 in Küsnacht. Bürgi also produced various works in this Swiss municipality, including gravestones commissioned by the Brack Bildhauer company and a number of fountains commissioned by the municipality of Küsnacht. He received the Kulturpreis der Gemeinde Küsnacht in 1986. In 1986 he participated in Art Basel 1986 together with Galerie Roswitha Benkert.
In 1991 he divorced his second wife. In 1994 he started a new relationship. With his new wife he made several long journeys and lived the last years of his life in Walenstadt, Switzerland. Jeannot Bürgi died on November 17, 2011 in Walenstadt.