Hippolyte Boulenger

Hippolyte Boulenger ( born December 3, 1837 in Tournai, † July 4, 1874 in Brussels) was a Belgian landscape painter. He founded the colony of artists of the Ecole de Tervueren.

Life

He came as a child of French parents in Tournai to the world. Boulenger came from difficult backgrounds. He spent his childhood in Tournai. His family moved with him to Paris, where he remained from 1850 to 1853. There he received his first drawing lessons. In 1853 he came to Brussels. There he worked in the workshop of Hubert Colleye as a decorator. At this time he also took evening classes at the Académie Royale des Beaux- Arts de Bruxuelles Joseph Quinaux.

In Tervuren he met in 1863 for the first time Camille Van Camp, who discovered him and his patron and mentor. In the same year he exhibited at the Brussels Salon. In 1866 he was a member of the Brussels Salon, together with Jules Raeymaekers. In 1868 he married and moved to Zaventem, but returned in 1870 to Tervuren. It should follow his best and most fruitful years.

Following one of his proposals was the Société Libre des Beaux -Arts, an association of freelance artist in Belgium. Its members included as full members Alfred Verwee, Félicien Rops, and Constantin Meunier. Honorary members were Jean -Baptiste Corot and Millet Jean- Fraçois.

He died in 1874 in a Brussels hotel. He suffered from epilepsy since 1869, which led, together with his alcohol abuse to his early death.

In Tournai, a street was named after him.

Work

His first paintings are characterized by dark color as it was common for the first generation of his school, which was close to realism. Later they evolved in the direction of impressionism and at the end of his career he took parts of Expressionism, actually a flow of the 20th century, anticipated. The expressionist painting, he should have just recognized in the Brussels Salon as modern, a prominent advocate of academic painting, which he declined otherwise.

For a time, Jean -François Millet his favorite model. However, he approached to gradually Corot, which is why it is also called Corot of Belgium. The best time of his work is the time from 1870.

Works by him are in the museums of Antwerp, Brussels, Ixelles, Mons, in the Charlier Museum in Saint- Josse- ten-Node, Saint- Nicolas, Tervuren, Tournai and Verviers.

School of Tervuren

Boulenger founded under the strong influence of the Paris School of Barbizon school of Tervuren. In this artists' colony gathered around him and Camille Van Camp near Brussels several well-known painters of this period, with Boulenger but due to its Plenairbilder remained one of the most successful. Your meeting place was in a hostel on the marketplace in Tervuren. They opposed the academic painting of her time. School of Tervuren was her own name.

Awards

1869 and 1872 he received the gold medal of the Brussels Salon.