The profession of her father exposed her to the interest of male members of the upper classes, and her mother was known to host balls, to which she invited students from the acting school, including her daughter, and introduced them to rich men.

[3] She made a second study trip to Paris in the summer of 1837, during which she took lessons from Mademoiselle Mars, whom she admired as a role model, after which her inborn talent is said to have blossomed fully, and she was reportedly received with great enthusiasm by the audience upon her return to Stockholm for the 1837–38 season.

She was very tall and thin, with a skin of rose and lily, fine features and beautiful blond hair, and she was additionally good humored and pleasant.

Emilie Högquist was an intellectual and hosted a literary salon every Thursday for the Swedish art world of painters and authors.

Though she died greatly in debt, the support of Crown Prince Oscar liberated her from any financial troubles and she was active within charity.

[3] She is noted to have acted as the patron of her brother Jean (Johan Isak) Högquist (1814–1850), who was a popular actor for a while, but did not manage his career because of his alcoholism.

From 1842 onward, Emilie Högquist suffered from the health problems of a progressing consumption, and spent the summer in Rome, where she was celebrated by the Swedish art colony.

[3] Her health recovered, and upon her return, she visited her daughter and sons in Hamburg and met Emil Key, who was 10 years her junior, and became her last lover.

[3] In the summer of 1845, she made a health journey to Carlsbad, but her illness had progressed to a point where she was no longer able to recover sufficiently to manage her work, and her last season of 1845-46 was a failure; after her last performance in December 1845, she was bedridden until May 1846.

[3] In July 1846, she left Sweden in an attempt to seek a cure for her consumption in a number of health resorts in Germany and Switzerland before continuing to Italy; she finally died in Turin 18 December 1846.