Her mother was Marguerite Martin[5] who worked as a laundress for Count Louis Harmand d'Abancourt, Aglaé's biological father.

She changed her name to Apollonie[7] and became a painter's model and posed for the statue Femme piquée par un serpent (1847) by Auguste Clésinger which is currently on display at the Musée d'Orsay.

[8] Sabatier hosted a salon in Paris on Rue Frochot,[9] near the Place Pigalle, where she met nearly all of the French artists of her time, such as Gérard de Nerval, Nina de Villard, Arsène Houssaye, Edmond Richard, Gustave Flaubert, Louis Bouilhet, Maxime du Camp, Gustave Ricard, Judith Gautier, daughter of Théophile; Ernest Feydeau, father of Georges Feydeau, Hector Berlioz, Paul de Saint-Victor, Alfred de Musset, Henry Monnier, Victor Hugo, Ernest Meissonnier, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Charles Jalabert, Ernesta Grisi, Gustave Doré, the musician Ernest Reyer, James Pradier, Auguste Préault, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Auguste Clésinger and Édouard Manet.

[6][8] Gustave Flaubert, Théophile Gautier and some others have written articles about her and she was one of four women (Caroline, Jeanne Duval, herself and Marie Daubrun) who inspired Charles Baudelaire's famous work Les Fleurs du Mal.

Her skin was smooth and flawless, her features were regular, she had a small mouth, ready to laugh, and something scanty and witty, but above all she distinguished herself by a haze of triumph that seemed to envelop her like a halo of happiness.