[1] His father was the judge Guilliam Balthasar Emants (1818–1870) and his mother was Anna Elisabeth Petronella Verwey Mejan (1824–1908).

He avoided the student scene in the Dutch university town of Leiden, but founded a literary club, Quatuor, with a few friends from The Hague.

In Quatuor’s successor, Spar en Hulst (Pine and Holly) he wrote an essay entitled Bergkristal van Oberammergau (Mountain crystal of Oberammergua) in 1872 about the Passion plays which he had attended there.

11 long years after his death, though, Minister of Education Marchant would still implement the proposals made by this commission anyway.

During the First World War, Emants felt locked up within the Netherlands and when Armistice was finally there, he made preparations to go and establish himself in Switzerland.

On 2 March 1920, he finally left The Hague forever and stayed in Switzerland alternatingly in hotels, spa towns and sanatoria.