Her father was an entrepreneur of Basque ancestry who made a fortune during a trip to Cuba and married the daughter of a vineyard owner when he returned.

In 1895, she exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français and was awarded the Marie Bashkirtseff prize for her painting, L'Amour de l'Art.

As a result, she began to receive orders for advertising posters, beginning with one for the Bal des Increvables at the Casino de Paris, followed by one to announce the launching of La Fronde, a journal founded by Marguerite Durand in 1897.

Her mother's sudden death plunged her into solitude and she developed what she herself described as a mad passion for Edmond's youngest son Maurice, who was a teenager and openly gay.

[2] She received a commission from the government for decorations at new additions to the Sorbonne (panels Astronomy and Mathematics and Radioactivity and Magnetism) and portraits of numerous personalities.