Oenicke was a student of Marie Remy in 1837, then employed by Carl Joseph Begas and later in the studio of Eduard Magnus.
[2] From 1840 she worked independently, and in 1848 she also offered drawing and painting lessons for women in her apartment at Bernburger Straße 18.
[3] In 1867, together with Marie Remy, Rosa Petzel, and Clara Heinke, she founded the Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen.
In 1870 she was listed in the Berlin address book as a portrait and history painter and lived at Dessauer Strasse 7 pt.
Clara Oenicke died on 9 August 1899 after a long and difficult illness.