Dick Bruna, 89, Dutch author of Miffy books . By Nina Siegal New York
Times . AMSTERDAM - Dick Bruna, the Dutch illustrator and children's
book author who created one of the most recognizable characters in the
world, a sparely drawn round little white rabbit known in English as
Miffy, died Thursday at his home in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He was
89. His death was announced on his website. Mr. Bruna's work has been
translated into more than 50 languages in 85 countries and has spawned
a Miffy cottage industry, with videos, television spinoffs, toys, and
other products with the character's likeness sold worldwide. "He's the
most translated author in the Netherlands, except for Anne Frank," said
Agnes Vogt, a children's book specialist at the Dutch Foundation for
Literature, "and in that sense he's one of the most important not only
illustrators but also authors that the Netherlands has ever had. Mr.
Bruna wrote and illustrated 124 books for children over six decades,
beginning with "De Appel" ("The Apple") published in the Netherlands in
1953. The book, which tells the story of life from the perspective of
an apple, has never gone out of print. None of his characters, however,
became as famous as Miffy, a cheerful little bunny who enjoys the small
moments of happiness that go along with small-scale adventures: a trip
with her family to the zoo, throwing a shiny ball around with friends,
visiting a farm or a museum, or celebrating her birthday. Mr. Bruna was
inspired to create Miffy after spotting a rabbit running in the woods
on a trip he had made to the countryside. He introduced her in his
second book, naming her by shortening the Dutch word for rabbit,
konijntje, to Nijntje, which is what she is called in the Netherlands.
That book, "Nijntje" (or "Miffy"), published in 1955, was followed by
"Miffy at the Zoo," both in a small, square format - about 6 inches by
6 inches - designed to be manageable for little hands. He went on to
write 30 more Miffy books. His children's books were not immediately
successful, however, said Marja Kerkhof, managing director of Mercis
Publishing, which has published all his books. "At the time he started,
it was very common to have large books for children with many
illustrations," she said, "and they would be far more busy and more
complicated - books that were more interesting from the parents' point
of view. Mr. Bruna insisted on simplicity - just a few illustrations
and short texts - as well as the small size. "He felt it was exactly
the right size for young kids," Kerkhof said. He was born in Utrecht on
Aug. 23, 1927. Wanting to be a fine artist, he lived for a while in
Paris and studied at the Rijksakademie (the State Academy of Fine Arts)
in Amsterdam but did not finish, frustrated, he said later, that he
could not paint or master perspective. But he held on to his artistic
ambitions, even in the face of skepticism: When he sought to marry
Irene de Jongh in 1952, her father asked him how he planned to support
her. To earn a steady income, he went to work for his father's
publishing company, A.W. Bruna and Zoon, designing posters, promotional
materials and book covers for detective novels, some of which featured
silhouetted detectives against simply colored backgrounds. His
children's books were a side project at first. And he did marry de
Jongh, whom he leaves, along with three children and six grandchildren.
Mr. Bruna never became the fine artist he had wanted to be, but his
work has nevertheless been recognized as part of the Dutch canon of art
and design. About his own work, Mr. Bruna once said, "I spend a long
time making my drawings as simple as possible, throwing lots away,
before I reach that moment of recognition. He added, "I leave plenty of
space for children's imagination. The result is a series of "Zen-like"
tales, Vogt said, "and that's also part of the universal appeal. "There
are many, many copycats who have tried to reproduce the style over the
years," she added, "and though it seems so simple, it's very hard to
get the same feeling.
