Over the years, we have received a lot of questions about Dick Bruna and his Miffy character. This little rabbit has been tugging at our heartstrings for some time now, so we wanted to find out more about who Bruna is and where Miffy comes from.
Dick Bruna is a Dutch artist who was born in the Dutch province of Utrecht in 1927. He came from a long line of publishers, as his great-grandfather started a publishing company called A.W. Bruna & Zoon in 1866, which was then passed down through the family for many generations. It grew to be one of the largest publishing companies in the Netherlands under the management of Bruna’s father, Albert Bruna. Bruna’s first job was as an artist, creating covers for books at his father’s publishing company.
In the late 1950s, the Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch) character was born. Bruna has said that his inspiration for the white, Hello Kitty-esque rabbit was from a rabbit that he observed hopping around his vacation home while he was with his children and his wife. Bruna wanted to take the image of the rabbit and turn him into cartoon form. From there, the image of Miffy was born. Of course, Miffy has gone through a number of subtle transformations throughout the years, yet Bruna has still stuck to the same basic, happy-go-lucky rabbit that so many people have fallen in love with.
Bruna went on to create more than 120 books, most of which are about the fluffy bunny that is Miffy. Readers have come to truly identify with this female rabbit because she is drawn in a very simplistic style. She is not complicated for children to identify with, and her sweet stories have inspired millions. Bruna’s style is defined by simple, clean lines and basic shapes that are very non-threatening for children.
Miffy is now a popular character, not only on books but on greeting cards and postcards as well, bringing cheer wherever she goes. For more about Bruna and Miffy, visit Miffy’s website. And if you’re ever in Utrecht, don’t miss the Dick Bruna museum!
39 comments so far
My childhood
cute.
Bruna is very strickt in copyrights. And not so keen in suporting others, but for WorldPeace he colaborated which resulted in this postcard
www.postcrossing.com/postcards/NL-462462
Near my town, on the seaside of Egmond aan Zee you can find Bruna's Nijntje Boot, since 2008. www.fotoleovogelzang.nl/preview.php?start=0&id=250652&zoektype=2&search=14-05-2008%20Egmond%20aan%20Zee,%20Nijntje%20weer%20terug%20aan%20Zee
Miffy! My favourite white rabbit, I just never knew what you're name was until now! :)
I have purchase the MIFFY character postcards over the years...but I never have seen a book...so I dint know if there was an actual story that goes along with MIFFY. What i like are the different themes (ie, sick, crying, reading, letter, bicycle, etc. Sometiems the theme is smack-on-perfect for a certain person. I will search for a Miffy book of the next few months. Thanks for the great presentation.
TAM
Miffy also joined me in my childhood. I remember it as Miffy (not as Nijntje) although I am Belgian (Dutch speaking). How strange....
I love Nijntje. I'm from Utrecht, so Dick Bruna is a famous fellow-townsman. My children had a lot of Nijntje-books, and one daughter worked in the Dick Bruna-House.
centraalmuseum.nl/bezoeken/locaties/dick-bruna-huis/
here is a link to the Dick Bruna huis. not only in dutch, also in english. I have never been there yet. But if I do I must take limmited cash with me for the shop....
http://centraalmuseum.nl/bezoeken/locaties/dick-bruna-huis/
you've seen it all, it was already in the text!
would be a nice spot for a postcrossingmeeting.
What a cute character! I had never heard of Miffy before today. The web site is also great!
i dunno her...:(
I received a lot of Miffy postcard through postcrossing and decided to collect it afterwards. Last year I got a scholarship to join Utrecht Summer School and it felt like "I'm going to heaven!" :D It's too bad I didn't have enough time to visit its museum but of course I grabbed Miffy postcard as many as I could.
I love Miffy,but I haven't received a Miffy postcard.
I love Nijntje! I grew up with her and her little friends just like everybody else here in the Netherlands.
Lovely stories and wonderful characters.
And I also like Bruna's work as a graphic designer and artist; he created the most wonderful bookcovers for the Zwarte Beertjes pocketserie (Black Bears pocket series)
http://www.retrobook.com/blackbears1.html
They also make great postcards!
I'd like to note that I prefer to call Hello Kitty a "Miffy-esque cat", because Nijntje (1955) is older than Hello Kitty (1974)!
I live in Utrecht. He is living here too with his wife. In the Central Museum of Utrecht there is a special part about Dick Bruna. Many Japanese come visit that museum and the giftshop is always full of Japanese customers.
So proud to live in Utrecht: The Miffy (Nijntje) capital!!
My daughter can recite the books from memory. We've read them sooooo often :-)
I had some Nijntje board books as a kid, Dick Bruna's simple style and the use of colours works so well :)
About a week of two ago I did sent a card of Dick Bruna with a "Black Bear" , see: NL-1055886. When I was a child I read the books of Nijntje; some of them so often that the books were fallen apart.
So cute! Love to add them to my collection! :)
Nostalgia! I saw the postcards yesterday in stores, didn't know that Miffy was the English name for Nijntje! Now I at least know what to look for when I receive the address of someone who would like to get a Miffy card, haha.
In 2005 there were also stamps with Miffy on it. They were explored by kinderpostzegels
This is a wonderful article. Knowing about the artist and the background behind the postcards is one of the joys of postcrossing. I have learned so much about other countries through postcrossing. Thank you for this contribution. I hope others will share information about their favorite artists and their postcards.
I love Nijntje! I grew up with her and now my little son is crazy about Nijntje :)
I had no idea about any of this!
I've seen Miffy postcards around the Postcrossing site and I think that they are so adorable! :) I hope to get a Miffy postcard someday :)
I love Miffy, although her colors here, nowadays, are more pinkish, maybe to compete with Hello Kitty. All my Miffy cards were sent by Postcrossers and I love them all! :)
It was nice to found this blog of Dick Bruna and this Miffy charachter. Last week I got a card with Miffy sitting on a little turtle :) It was so cute card, I didnt know about this charachter before ! Thank you :)
I grew up with `Nijntje´ like so many others.
I love Nijntje, she reminds me of when I was a little girl
:-D
For an overview of his work, look at:
http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Dick-Bruna/
I live two blocks away from the Dick Bruna house and it's my daughters favorite place to play as they have also build a little Nijntje-house inside the museum where you can put on a Nijntje dress and sleep in Nijntje's bed, too cute. My daughter is also very found of Nijntje's friend Nina, you don't see her often but she is very cute too!
Did you know that there is even a Nijntje musical? Went there with my daughters and we loved it!
I LOVE Miffy!
Ofcourse is Nijntje (I'm Dutch) a part of my Childhood. Even my little nephew (2 years) and niece (9 months) are growing up with her. And I wil watch it too, when I see it on TV...
Great!!!
Nijntje.
I remember watching Miffy in the German childrens TV show Sandman but I always thought that Miffy was a boy. :)
For people who collect stamps.. I have Nijntje/Miffy stamps, so if your interested, we can have a direct swap :)
Oh I really love Miffy,who has some postcads about Miffy?I wanna receive one~~
I like'em so much! Very special style, I have two these cards.
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