'Nijntje'.
Dick Bruna was a national institution in his homeland, the Netherlands, but also one of the most recognizable children's illustrators internationally. He has written and illustrated hundreds of books for toddlers, of which hs most famous creation is the little white bunny 'Nijntje' ('Miffy' in English). His simple, but instantly readable linework, full with bright colors and round shapes, has appealed not only to parents with children, but also gained admiration from fellow illustrators and graphic artists. His picture novels are comparable to text comics, with the narration under the illustrations and some images using sequential art.
'Wat Nijntje Later Worden Wil...' ("What Miffy Wants To Be When She Grows Up")
Early life
Hendrik Magdalenus Bruna was born in 1927 in Utrecht as son of a publisher. His first name "Dick" was a nickname he received for being rather chubby as a child ("dik" is Dutch for "fat"). During World War II, the Bruna family hid from the Nazis in Loosdrecht, to avoid being sent off to work in German factories. He continued his high school education after the war, but dropped out soon afterwards. His father expected him to become a publisher just like him, but the young Dick Bruna had a bigger passion for drawing and painting. After visiting various museums in London and Paris, Bruna knew what he wanted to do in life. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, but once again dropped out. Eventually, his parents gave him a job at their company, A.W. Bruna Uitgevers B.V., albeit as an illustrator rather than a publisher. At the company, Dick Bruna received his artistic education from Rein van Looy, the in-house graphic designer.
Dick Bruna's style was heavily influenced by classic children's book illustrators and graphic designers like Rie Cramer, Anton Pieck, Raymond Savignac, Saul Bass, Jo Spier, Heinrich Hoffmann, Elsa Beskow and particularly Jean de Brunhoff, famous for 'Babar the Elephant'. In school paper, Bruna mimicked Walt Disney characters by tracing them from official publicity drawings. In the field of high art, Bruna admired Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Paul Klee, Georges Braque and his idol, Henri Matisse. However, his strongest graphical influences came from the Dutch art movement "De Stijl", particularly its key artists Piet Mondriaan, Gerrit Rietveld and Bart van der Leck. As he used the same precise, minimalistic, colorful and efficient designs, Bruna could almost be considered their direct stylistic successor.
Book cover illustrations for Havank's 'Lijk Halfstok' and Leslie Charteris' 'The Saint and de Tyran'.
Graphic career
During World War II, Bruna wrote and illustrated his first book, 'Japie' (1943-1945), but this was merely intended for his mother and never published. In 1952, he livened up the pages of his first published children's book, a translation of Pearl S. Buck's short story collection 'Far and Near: Stories of Japan, China and America'. With 'De Appel' ('The Apple, 1953), Bruna made his writing debut as a children's author. In 1954, he became an illustrator for A.W. Bruna's 'Zwarte Beertjes' ("Little Black Bears") pocket book series, where he decorated book series covers by adult authors like Georges Simenon ('Inspector Maigret'), Leslie Charteris ('The Saint'), Ian Fleming ('James Bond'), William Shakespeare and Havank ('The Shadow'). Among his other early children's books were 'Toto In Volendam' (1954), 'Kleine Koning' (1955) and 'Tijs' (1957).
'Kleine Koning' (1955) and 'Tijs' (1957).
Nijntje, and other characters
In 1955, Bruna created the character that made him beloved all over the world, the little white bunny Nijntje Pluis ('Miffy'). While on holiday in Egmond aan Zee, Dick Bruna told his eldest son Sierk a bedtime story every night about a white rabbit that roamed the garden of the holiday cottage. That rabbit became the inspiration for Miffy, who became a girl because Bruna preferred drawing a dress to pants. Eight years later, the character's initial design with floppy ears was changed into the stylized current design. During a period of almost 60 years, a great many 'Nijntje' books were released, first by A.W. Bruna & Zoon, then by Van Goor & Zonen, and since 1995 by Mercis Publishing, the company that was already managing the character's worldwide exploitation since 1971. Each square-shaped booklet has 24 pages, with on the right page a drawing and on the left page a rhyme of four lines, all written in lower case. The stories follow Nijntje and her family and friends on all sorts of everday activities, like going to the beach, playing in the snow or going to a birthday party.
While Nijntje remains Bruna's most famous creation, he created similar picture books around other characters, such as Snuffie the dog ('Snuffy', 1969), Betje Big ('Poppy Pig', 1977) and Boris en Barbara Beer ('Boris and Barbara Bear', 1989). Later in his career, he also made child-friendly adaptations of fairy tales and Bible stories.
Style
As strange as it may seem today, Bruna's books were not an immediate success. Critics and general audiences even considered them "daring". All illustrations are very minimalistic and one-dimensional, limiting characters to basic shapes and primary colors. They often look directly at the viewer. Bruna even juxtaposed colors others would deem too much of a contrast, like green and blue. There is no attempt at perspective, let alone much detail. In his lettering, Bruna avoided capital letters and interpunction in his lettering. The target audience on the other hand was far more receptive. Slowly but surely, Bruna's books became global bestsellers which have entertained generations of children.
'Boris en Barbara Beer'.
People are often misled by the simplicity of Bruna's illustrations. While they may same "easy", every image follows a clearly defined concept. The small rectangular shape of each book, for instance, was done to acknowledge to toddlers that the stories were specifically made for them. Each illustration was made with the utmost care and precision. The tiniest line could make a difference in emotional or technical impact. After putting the basic outlines on paper, Bruna usually made a copy of his drawings first. This allowed him to experiment with color schemes without having to ruin an otherwise perfect black-and-white design. Bruna sometimes spent weeks drawing and redrawing everything. His earliest book illustrations were painted, while later publications used collage techniques to give them a smoother design. By 1963, he had perfected his style the way it is best known today.
The stories were an equally painstaking process. Each sentence was done in rhyme and had to be understandable to the target audience. The plots moved along with the times. In 'Nijntjes Droom' ('Miffy's Dream', 1979), Miffy received a black girlfriend, Nina, and Miffy's grandmother passed away in 'Lieve Oma Pluis' ('Dear Grandma Bunny', 1996). Since death is generally a taboo subject in children's literature, the latter story was very controversial upon its release. Yet the topic was treated in a serene way, without frightening imagery or downplayed emotional impact. The book won many awards and Bruna said he felt he made the right choice when parents wrote him to say that their little son or daughter took a copy of the book to their own grandmother's funeral.
Japanese edition of 'Dear Grandma Bunny'.
Global success
Dick Bruna's picture stories have been translated into many languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Even books in regional Dutch dialects have been published, such as Marnix Rueb's translation of 'Miffy' in the local slang of The Hague. As Bruna's global fame grew, he received more commissions. In 1969 and 1998, he designed a series of stamps for the Dutch and Japanese postal services, respectively. He made wall paintings, greeting cards and posters for various companies, city councils and humanitarian causes such as Terre des Hommes, the Red Cross, the Green Cross, Veilig Verkeer Nederland, Amnesty International and Unicef. He crafted the official logos for World Aids Day (2002), Stop Child Soldiers (2002) and the Special Olympics in Nagano, Japan (2005). His characters have been adapted into animated TV series, both hand-drawn (1992, with help from animation veteran Gene Deitch), stop-motion (2003-2007, for which Ellen Meske was one of the animators) and CGI (2015-2016). Miffy inspired several theatrical musicals and her own feature-length stop-motion animated film in 2003, directed by Hans Perk. In 2003, Miffy was appointed as New York City's Family Tourism Ambassador, to give the Big Apple a new appeal to children and European and Asian visitors.
Bruna's art has become especially popular in Japan, where they've printed several Bruna postage stamps have been printed. This letter with Japanese Bruna stamps was sent to Evelien, wife of Kees Kousemaker.
Copyright issues
'Miffy' is such an iconic creation that, unavoidably, similarly designed fluffy white mammals have been accused of being rip-offs, such as Ray Goossens' 'Musti' (1968), Yuko Shimizu's 'Hello Kitty' (1974) and Cathy the rabbit. In 2010, the Dick Bruna estate won a copyright claim against Sanrio - the company that distributes 'Hello Kitty' - to stop marketing Cathy in the Benelux. However, after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku, both parties agreed out-of-court to donate their legal fees to the victims of this natural disaster.
Bruna was less friendly when the Belgian satirical magazine Deng put Miffy on a 2005 cover to illustrate an article about international drug trade. The cover showed Miffy ('Nijntje') with a bloody nose and a line of coke, accompanied by the text: "Ieder zijn lijntje" ("To each his little line"). The issue had to be removed from stores on grounds of copyright infringement. The court case effectively drove the magazine into bankruptcy. In 2009, the weblog community mijndomein.nl also spoofed Miffy doing controversial stuff, like snorting cocain. This time the judge ruled in favor of the site owners. From that moment on, 'Miffy' parodies were allowed, albeit only in The Netherlands.
'Nijntje In De Dierentuin'.
Recognition
Throughout his long career, Dick Bruna received many honors. In 1991, his drawings were exhibited in the prestigious Centre Pompidou museum in Paris. He received his own museum in his birth city Utrecht. The artist was knighted in the Order of Oranje-Nassau in 1983, in 2001 followed by a knighthood as Commander in the Order of the Dutch Lion. In 2016, Dick Bruna received the Max Velthuijs Prize for his entire body of work
In 2000, Bruna landed a spot in the Guinness Book of Records, when 38,000 children from 80 different countries sent him postcards to congratulate Miffy. He broke his own record five years later, when he received 39,670 cards. The Dutch public voted him to the 67th place in the 2004 election of "De Grootste Nederlander" ("The Greatest Dutchman"). In 2008, a new species of Peruvian booklouses was also named after her: Trichadenotecnum miffy.
Final years, death, legacy and influence
In August 2014, after nearly 60 years of work, Dick Bruna announced his retirement. He passed away in 2017 in Utrecht, at the age of 89. Bruna's children's books remain global bestsellers to this day. Architect J.J.P. Oud once sent Bruna a personal letter to express his admiration for his work. Novelist Georges Simenon gave Bruna one of his pipes and signed it with the name of his signature character 'Maigret'. Leslie Charteris ('The Saint') expressed sadness over Bruna resigning as illustrator for 'Zwarte Beertjes' and wrote the company to say: "Since Dick retired, book covers are no longer the same."
Among the graphic artists who adored Bruna's work are Kurt Lob, Max Velthuijs, Eric Carle (best known for 'The Hungry Caterpillar') and Charles M. Schulz ('Peanuts'). In 2003, Wilma van den Bosch made a small comic story for De Inktpot about how she once met Bruna while visiting a store for artists' supplies. The French artist Blexbolex has also ranked Dick Bruna among his influences. On 1 May 2015, Joost Swarte decorated a sculpture of Dick Bruna's Miffy character for the Art Parade in the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam.
Dick Bruna receiving the Silver Medal of the city of Utrecht in August 1987 (Nederlands Dagblad, 22 August 1987).