Pierre Hippolyte Emmanuel Boulenger was born on December 3, 1837, in Tournai.
He had a difficult childhood, partly spent with his family in Paris, where he received his first drawing lessons.
In 1853, he returned to Brussels and worked in the decorating workshop of Paul-Joseph Colleye. At the same time, he attended evening classes at the Brussels Academy in the class of landscape painter Joseph Quinaux.
In 1864, thanks to Camille Van Camp, he found lodgings at the In den Vos inn in Tervuren, the town where he married.
In the second half of the 19th century, a group of painters formed around him who challenged academic painting. They met regularly at the In den Vos inn on the Tervuren Market Square and called themselves the Tervuren School.
The arrival of Hippolyte Boulenger (1837-1874), who joined Alphonse Asselbergs (1839-1916), Jules Raeymaekers (1833-1904), Jules Montigny (1840-1899), Édouard Huberti (1818-1880), and Louise Héger (1839-1933), enhanced the town's artistic reputation.
He died, after a long illness and suffering, at the age of 36.
