Aged 14, she was initiated into the "La Candeur" masonic lodge, in which she met several playwrights such as Olympe de Gouges and other influential figures who favoured her artistic career in Parisian society and the intrigues of the dying ancien régime.

Through the influence of her protectors, at the age of 15 she debuted at the Académie royale de Musique on 27 December 1782 in the title role of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide, in which she had only moderate success.

At 16 Candeille made her fortepiano debut at the Concert Spirituel, where she performed a concerto by Clementi-–by this time she was also already composing sonatas, romances and airs for the harpsichord and piano, some of which have recently been rediscovered.

A reporter from the Mercure de France said: Miss Candeille, who has a very pleasing face and figure, brings to a special talent for the fortepiano, acquired as a composer, new claims to applause.

[3] Her strong personality and original ideas did not gain her friends and she was always held in low esteem by her colleagues in the Comédie française such as Molé, Dazincourt, Fleury or Mlle Louise Contat, who regarded her just as one of the Versailles courtesans.

This play formed the pretext for a clash between the representatives of France's powerful colonial slave-owning lobby and the Amis des Noirs, a club co-founded by Brissot, Condorcet and abbé Grégoire.

In 1792, she participated in a festival held by Talma and his company at their home on the rue Chantereine in honour of general Dumouriez, victor of the battle of Valmy, at which Marat (at the head of a group of "énergumènes") loudly announced himself.

First put on during the trial of Louis XVI, it was performed over 150 times in the next 35 years and received some international acclaim, prompting numerous editions of arrangements of the airs with harp or piano accompaniment.

She was the object of a denunciation and a search was ordered of her residence at rue Neuve des Mathurins, but thanks to the Montagnard deputy Julien de Toulouse (a member of the Committee of General Security) she managed to avoid being labelled a suspect and thus arrested.

The play she was shown writing was her second opera, a slightly scandalous five-act verse comedy entitled La Bayadère ou le Français à Surate.

Like many parvenus of that era, the couple wanted a petite maison, which they had built at great expense to designs by Bellanger[clarification needed] at pointe Bellevue, on the former Mesdames estate.

When war resumed at the start of the First Empire, Jean Simons' business affairs declined and his wife retired to their Parisian hôtel particulier at 3 rue Cérutti, giving piano recitals at aristocratic soirées in the French capital.

Throughout her life Julie Candeille welcomed, supported and encouraged young people and other women musicians, dedicating many of her works to Hélène de Montgeroult and Pauline Duchambge.

An undated drawing by Girodet shows him and Candeille in double profile – she is hardly recognisable, having seemingly sacrificed her long blonde hair for an "à la garçonne" haircut before that phrase existed.