Born 1882, Boon started his art training at the oldest Art Academy in Europe, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the Hague. He was a student of, amongst others, Jacob Maris (Netherlands 1837 – 1899). In 1906 and 1907 Boon received an arts grant from Queen Wilhelmina which allowed him to paint full time. In the 1920s he spent a number of years in Austria and Belgium and acquired an intimate knowledge of Neue Saclichkeit (New Objectivity or Post-expressionism) – a German movement which arose in opposition to expressionism. He also belonged to a circle of friends at the centre of which was the famous Dutch poet Jan Greshoff.

Boon's early work consists mainly of local townscapes and animals. From the 1930s onwards he excelled in portrait drawings of figures from the world of science and politics and also in oil paintings of delicate still life. Many of his plant and flower images were used as illustrations in school books. Boon’s small but attractive body of work is characterised by closed lines and contours.  He died in 1975.