She began her artistic education at the Technical School, then studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts from 1874 to 1880.

[2] In 1881, after having spent the previous summers on the French coast, she went to Paris to finish her studies at the Académie Julian with Jean Charles Cazin and Tony Robert-Fleury.

[2] She eventually settled in at the Swedish artists' colony in Grez-sur-Loing, where she met her husband, the American painter Francis Brooks Chadwick.

They married and bought an inn there in 1887, which became a popular meeting place for the expatriate artists, They had three children including Louise Read Chadwick, wife of Squadron Leader Marcel Courmes.

While living there, she travelled extensively, visiting Brittany with her friend, Amanda Sidwall, and accompanying her husband on trips to Spain, North Africa, Italy, the United States and England.