Dutch Treat

Book excerpt: Luckily for everyone, the famous artist Rien Poortvliet, who from his pastoral retreat in Holland has charmed millions with his books Gnomes, The Living Forest, and The Farm Book, felt the urge to make another book. Almost before he knew it, he was setting down on paper, with pencil and brush, the myriad thoughts, memories, observations, and comments that flowed into his mind. Here, in his own words and in his inimitable sketches and paintings, is the story of the artist's life, by turns matter-of-fact and sentimental, serious and comic. Here are is family (the grownups and the babies), his friends (human and animal), and the people of the village--as well as persons vividly remembered from the past. Some of Poortvliet's keenest recollections are of World War II: holding on to his mother's hand as they watched the bombing of Rotterdam in the distance; being bored but grateful for endless meals of mashed carrots, onions, and potatoes during the starvation winter; feeling horror at the sight of angry mobs painting red swastikas on the shaved heads of the camp followers of the German troops. Poortvliet's spontaneous evocations of the varied aspects of the Netherlands--through his superb drawings and paintings and his sensitive running comment--give the reader a strong sense of the land and its inhabitants. His depictions of people in their customary daily pursuits and of woodland animals in their natural settings alike arouse profound admiration. Dutch Treat is pervaded by a sense of the beauty of nature and its creatures and leavened by Poortvliet's gentle but irrepressible humor. No one will be able to resist it. -- Inside jacket flap.