Journey into gnome land

Rein Poortvliet's delightful illustrations of fictional beings made him a household name in Europe.

By all accounts, Gnomes was Rien Poortvliet’s most popular tome. Originally published in Dutch in 1976 and released in English in 1977, it introduced many aspects of gnome life and its relationships with animals, plants, and other nature spirits. Poortvliet’s charming illustrations complimented by his longtime friend Wil Huygen’s detailed notes of the gnomes’ habits, marriage, home building, food, medicine, friends, enemies, anatomy, and lifestyle, delighted readers of all ages.

Gnomes made Poortvliet (1932-95) a household name in Europe. It also turned out to be a major financial success for its publishers. More than seven lakh copies of the book were sold in the first year of its publication. (As of 2019, over four million copies reportedly have been sold worldwide.) It was on top of the bestseller list of the New York Times for over a year; and triggered a market for several spin-off books and commercial products focussed on gnomes. Los Angeles Times described Gnomes as ‘one of those remarkable books which represents an author’s almost obsessive dedication to a single subject’. The book was translated into many foreign languages.

A mysterious world

Presented as if it is a scientific field study and factual account, the book transported the viewer-reader to another mysterious world. Enthralled by the stupendous artwork and meticulous details of the book, many wondered if gnomes were real flesh-n-blood beings. While reading the book, many people seemed to forget that it was just a delightful piece of made-up reality. (The blurb clearly mentioned that all the ‘factual data’ mentioned in the book were invented; and that it was after all ‘a great tongue-in-cheek book!’)

Poortvliet and Huygen ingeniously packed the book with a plethora of fascinating and funny, if ‘fictional’ facts. Sample these: Although a gnome is no taller than 15 cm, he is seven times stronger than a human and has a lifespan of around 400 years. The adult male gnome weighs 300 grams while the adult female gnome weighs 250-275 grams. A female gnome ovulates only once in her life and if she gets pregnant, she will always bear twins. Gnome children wet the bed until they are 12, and they live with their parents until they are 100 years old. Since no deaths are caused by illness, the total gnome population remains about the same. Gnomes have their own secret way of telling time, based on cosmic oscillation; they speak their own language. Over 400 years of age, the male rapidly becomes stiff and forgetful, and eventually, the shrivelled-up man develops a tendency to wander. His wife displays the same symptoms, she being almost the same age herself. On one particular night, the aged couple make their journey to the Mountain of Death. Lives beyond 400 years have seldom been recorded, with the exception of a married gnome couple in the Balkans who lived 550 years!

Hunting and drawing

Born in the Dutch city of Schiedam in 1932, Poortvliet faced stiff opposition from his father, a plasterer, for training in arts. “It’s not that my father wouldn’t buy me pencils and paper. There were no pencils to be bought (thanks to shortages brought about by World War II).” When he was 20, Poortvliet enlisted himself with the Royal Netherlands Navy and stayed there for about two years. Later, he worked successfully as an advertising artist, besides finding time to provide illustrations for various publishers, especially of children books.

Success came with his first publication Hunting Drawings (1972), followed by ...The Foxes Have Holes (1973). In his next book, He Was One Of Us (1974), he depicted the life of Christ as ‘man among men’ in 82 scenes. Two years later, when Poortvliet and Huygen put together the fascinating reference book about gnomes, it paved the way for international recognition.

Poortvliet was delighted to be on the bestseller list of the New York Times, but was stunned that his book of gnomes was placed by the editors on the nonfiction list! In one of his later interviews, he revealed a general disdain for American culture which, according to him, ‘lacked history … lacked taste’. On his visit to the United States, he said: “What I learned about America was that I wanted to go home.”

Any animal you want

Poortvliet, who in later years moved to Soest, a village 30 miles southeast of Amsterdam, personally nurtured a collection of animals — rabbits, dogs, cats, chickens, and some farm stock in his home. He loved sketching and painting briskly. Understandably, his chosen medium was watercolour: “Sometimes with much water. Sometimes with a very dry brush. Sometimes with a little spit.” He was proud to be a self-taught artist and never regretted missing academic training. “In art school, you learn very much from other people; but you also learn what they think is good. I taught myself, and I am my own critic… I am not a highly artistic artist. I am an old-fashioned reformed solid figure. Go to bed on time, get up on time and continue working.”
A deeply religious man, Poortvliet thought his gift and talent was God-given. A jovial man who flaunted a goatee and an air of pompous self-righteousness, he was confident of himself and possessed a fine sense of humour not devoid of self-mockery. “I can paint for you any animal you want, including humans. I can paint an elephant from underneath as if it were walking on a plate of glass above us. I have never seen this, but I can paint it.”

As a public figure, Poortvliet had his share of controversies. He was criticised for being pompous, populist and moralistic in his views and utterances. Even as he professed great love for animals, he was a passionate hunter all his adult life. He tried to explain that hunting was a necessary part of responsible wildlife management; and that there was a distinction between hunters and shooters, but his detractors remained unconvinced. When Poortvliet died of bone cancer on September 15, 1995, he was 63.