She was eighteen when her father died, luckily his brother, Fredrik, appreciated her talent and supported her education.

She gained her education at the Tegne- og Kunstindustriskolen for Kvinder,[2] the Valand School of Fine Arts in Gotheborg and with Christian Krohg at the Académie Colarossi in Paris.

[3] In Paris she joined other Scandinavians including fellow painter Tora Vega Holmström.

Others would eventually follow her lead, but for now she was becoming "the first painter in the East", a title that would be associated with her She took an interest in flowers and she painted portraits including that of Martha Lyzell in 1914 and in time they would live together in her childhood home town of Simrishamn.

[2] When she died at her home in Simrishamn in 1949 she left instructions that her paintings should be sold in order that a charity could be established.