Yvonne Helene Jacquette (December 15, 1934 – April 23, 2023) was an American painter, printmaker, and educator. She was known in particular for her depictions of aerial landscapes, especially her low-altitude and oblique aerial views of cities or towns, often painted using a distinctive, pointillistic technique. Through her marriage with Rudy Burckhardt, she was a member of the Burckhardt family by marriage. Her son is Tom Burckhardt.

Early life and education

Yvonne Jacquette was born on December 15, 1934, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William and Helen (née Amrhein) Jacquette. Her father was an accountant and management consultant while her mother was a homemaker. Her paternal great-grandfather, Jacques Hubert Jacquot, emigrated from Châlonvillars, France, with the name being changed upon arrival. Her maternal grandparents were both from Palatinate, Germany. She grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. She started studying art at age 10, and by 1947 she attended private instruction by traditionalist painter Robert Roché. Jacquette continued her studies at the Rhode Island School of Design (class of 1955).

Career

Jacquette taught at Moore College of Art and was a visiting artist at the University of Pennsylvania from 1972 to 1976. She taught at Parsons School of Design from 1975 to 1978 and at the University of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1984. Her three-part mural "Autumn Expression" (1980) is in the U.S. Post Office in Bangor, Maine. According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's online bio, Jacquette held various academic positions and was also honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1990. In an interview with art critic John Yau in The Brooklyn Rail, Jacquette said of the way she came to begin painting aerial views: It happened by accident, of course. I didn’t ever plan it, I was going to visit my parents who had just moved to California and I was in a plane with watercolors and I started to see that the clouds were amazing when you’re right in them. Jacquette married Rudy Burckhardt in 1964. She was a visiting artist at the Siena Art Institute in 2012. Jacquette lived in New York City, and died on April 23, 2023.

Work

As noted in The Female Gaze, "Jacquette's works began with direct studies made with pastel on paper or photographs taken from airplanes, skyscrapers, or rented single-engine planes. She often took flights primarily to study cloud formations and aerial perspectives. She was has been described as the 'Canaletto of the skies.' Her paintings are intensely colored, elaborately detailed panoramas of cities, and the countryside at various day and night. Unique views and radical angles draw attention to the act of perception, anthropomorphizing the buildings that occupy her urbanscapes."

Awards and commissions

2009 2005 2003 1999 1998 1998-97 1994 1993 1990 1988 1979-82 1976

Solo exhibitions

2010 2009-10 2008 2006 2005 2003 2002–2003 2000 1998 1997 1996 1995 1992 1991 1990 1988 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1979 1976 1974 1972 1971 1965

Public collections

Personal life

In 1961, she married fellow painter Rudy Burckhardt, who was recently divorced and had one son. They had another son, Tom Burckhardt, in 1964. Jacquette died on April 23, 2023, aged 88 in New York City.