Camille Lemonnier was born on 24 March 1844 in Ixelles, the son of a Walloon lawyer and a Flemish mother, and attended the Royal Athenaeum grammar school in Brussels. After dropping out of law school, the young man took up the pen in 1863 and discovered the art scene for himself. He published critical essays in the magazine Le Salon de Bruxelles and opposed bourgeois conformism, which was subject to state institutions. After a few years in the Meuse Valley, the author returned to Brussels in 1866 to "explore the life of the cities". There, Lemonnier collaborated with the Destrée brothers and Hector Chainaye on the art and literature magazine La Jeune Belgique. Camille Lemonnier died of bowel cancer in Ixelles on 13 June 1913.