Rien Poortvliet drew the way a naturalist takes notes. Animals studied from several angles, close-ups of tools and clothing, small figures going about their work: his pages are crowded with studies, each one precise, the whole spread loose and conversational. Many readers know him through Gnomes, but the same method runs through his books on hunting, horses, dogs, farm life and Dutch history. For illustrators and book designers, that method is the real lesson: observe closely, draw a lot, and let the page layout feel like an open sketchbook.
A note on images: Poortvliet died in 1995, and none of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago or the Cleveland Museum of Art holds a public-domain or CC0 work by him. His work is therefore described here in text only. It remains under copyright, and nothing here suggests it is free to reuse. For cleared images from museum collections, browse the MGD museum inspiration collection.
Who was Rien Poortvliet?
Marinus Harm (Rien) Poortvliet was born in Schiedam, near Rotterdam, on 7 August 1932, and died in Soest on 15 September 1995, according to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) and the Digital Library for Dutch Literature (DBNL). DBNL describes him as coming from a strictly Reformed family.
He did not train at an art academy. In a 1989 interview with The Christian Science Monitor he recalled that his father wanted him to learn a decent profession, so he started in advertising, drawing family scenes for soap companies. In his spare time he illustrated books for publishers, and he was a keen hunter, which led him to draw animals and landscapes from life.
By the end of the 1960s he was working as an independent illustrator. His own books followed in quick succession, published in the Netherlands by Van Holkema & Warendorf in Bussum and in the United States largely by Harry N. Abrams, according to library catalogue records:
- Jachttekeningen (1972), drawings and watercolours from his hunting experience;
- Hij was een van ons (1974), a life of Jesus, later published in English as He Was One of Us;
- Te hooi en te gras (1975), on farm life, published in English as The Farm Book, which The Christian Science Monitor reviewed in 1988 as a look at Dutch farm heritage;
- Leven en werken van de kabouter (1976), with text by the physician Wil Huygen, published in English in 1977 as Gnomes;
- Het brieschend paard (1978), on horses, and later books including one on Noah’s Ark (1985);
- Langs het tuinpad van mijn vaderen (1987; in English In My Grandfather’s House, 1988) and De tresoor van Jacob Jansz. Poortvliet (1991; in English Daily Life in Holland in the Year 1566), which imagine the everyday lives of ordinary Dutch people of earlier centuries.
Gnomes was translated into many languages and adapted as a Spanish animated television series, known in English as The World of David the Gnome, first broadcast in 1985. A museum devoted to his work opened in Middelharnis in 1992; it closed there in 2006 and reopened in 2009 on the island of Tiengemeten in South Holland, where it shows drawings, watercolours and oil paintings.
What to look at in Rien Poortvliet’s work
The page as a sketchbook spread
Open any of his large-format books and the layout is the first thing you notice. Instead of one framed picture per page, drawings of different sizes and finish sit side by side: a fully painted scene, a few pencil studies, a diagram-like cross-section, a detail at larger scale. White paper runs between them. The effect is of looking over the artist’s shoulder at his notes, which makes even an invented subject such as gnomes feel observed.
Observation first
Poortvliet’s reputation rests on animals. His hunting and nature books depend on knowing how a deer stands, how a hare folds its legs, how feathers lie on a pheasant. That habit of observation carries into the gnome books, where the gnomes’ clothing, tools and houses are drawn with the same specificity as a badger’s fur. Fantasy is made believable by the same rigour as natural history.
Earthy, natural colour
Dealer listings and reports on his museum describe his media as watercolour, pencil, gouache, charcoal, ink and oil. In the books, colour tends to stay close to nature: browns, greens, the greys of Dutch weather, with brighter accents kept for a gnome’s red cap or a bird’s plumage. A limited, local palette holds dozens of small drawings together on one spread.
Words as captions, not columns
In the gnome books especially, much of the text is short caption copy that sits close to the drawings it explains, rather than long columns set apart from them. The drawing leads, and the words label and annotate. It is a relationship that information designers will recognise from field guides and technical manuals.
Technique: pencil, watercolour and the long study
Poortvliet worked mainly in pencil and watercolour, with gouache, charcoal, ink and oil also appearing in works offered by Dutch dealers such as Simonis & Buunk. The hunting book of 1972 was built from drawings and watercolours of animals he had watched in the field, and that practice of quick studies refined into finished plates shapes his later books too.
The 1989 Christian Science Monitor profile caught him working on another history of daily life among ordinary people of the 1500s and 1600s, the research that led to his 1566 book. These history books apply the naturalist’s method to the past: tools, clothing, houses and farm animals are drawn as if documented, so that a reconstructed world reads as a record. The same profile quoted his scepticism about modernist art, a reminder that his project was deliberately traditional and narrative.
For a historical precedent in careful observation of animals, see our guide to Audubon’s birds; for the Dutch everyday scenes that his history books echo, see our guide to Dutch Golden Age painting.
Rien Poortvliet and the illustrated nature book
Poortvliet belongs to a line of illustrators who made the observed natural world the subject of popular books. Beatrix Potter combined close study of animals with storytelling, and Tasha Tudor built a whole visual world around rural domestic life. What sets Poortvliet apart is scale and density: big pages, many drawings, and a tone that moves between field guide, family album and tall tale.
How designers can borrow from Rien Poortvliet
- Design the spread, not the picture. Plan a page with one hero image and several smaller studies. Vary size and finish, from rough pencil to full colour, and leave generous white space between them.
- Draw from life before you stylise. Fill a sketchbook with real animals, objects or people before designing characters or icons. Specific detail is what makes invented things feel credible.
- Use captions as design elements. Short, close-set labels that point at what they describe can replace a block of body text. Field-guide layouts are a strong model for onboarding screens and explainer graphics.
- Keep the palette local. Pick colours from a real landscape or season and reserve one bright accent. Our colour palette generator can help you build a restrained earth palette with a single highlight.
- Make fiction feel documented. Cross-sections, measurements, “specimen” views and before-and-after sequences lend authority to a fictional world, as the gnome books show. The same devices work in brand storytelling and game art.
- Treat research as content. His history books show research drawings becoming the finished book. Reference boards and process sketches can be published, not hidden.
Copyright and where to see his work
Rien Poortvliet died in 1995, so his drawings and paintings are in copyright, and no work by him in the Met, Art Institute of Chicago or Cleveland collections is flagged public domain. No images are shown here. The Rien Poortvliet museum on Tiengemeten in the Netherlands shows his originals; check its opening times before visiting. To understand how museum public-domain flags work, read our guide to public domain art.
Frequently asked questions
What is Rien Poortvliet known for?
He is known for illustrating Gnomes (Dutch edition 1976, English 1977), written by Wil Huygen, and for his own large books of animal, farm and Dutch history drawings in pencil and watercolour.
Did Rien Poortvliet write Gnomes?
No. The text of Leven en werken van de kabouter (Gnomes) was written by Wil Huygen, a physician, and the illustrations are by Poortvliet. They later collaborated on further gnome books.
Where can I see Rien Poortvliet’s original art?
The museum devoted to his work is on the island of Tiengemeten in South Holland, where it moved in 2009 after opening in Middelharnis in 1992. It shows drawings, watercolours and oil paintings.
Is Rien Poortvliet’s art public domain?
No. He died in 1995, and his work remains under copyright. It is described here in text only; check rights with his publishers or estate before any use.
