Her father was the postmaster of the town until the mid-1850s, after which he moved the entire family to Paris where he sold lemonade, tobacco, and wine at a shop in the 17th arrondissement.

Clémence Tréhot, her older sister, was the lover of artist Jules Le Cœur, who later introduced her to Pierre-Auguste Renoir at his house in Marlotte, possibly in June 1865.

The Impressionist painting depicts Tréhot in a life-size portrait, strolling through a wooded park as sunlight falls through the trees.

[1][9] French art critic Théodore Duret later observed that because Renoir's Lise was derivative of Gustave Courbet's technique, its appearance at the Salon "provoked no definite opposition".

[5][11][12] At the Salon of 1869, Tréhot appeared in a work named In Summer (1868), dressed casually in a loose blouse falling off her shoulders.

John Collins notes that Tréhot's "dark, heavy-set and expressionless features" worked well in such portraits, but were less successful in more formal, costume-oriented paintings such as The Engaged Couple (1868), where she poses with artist Alfred Sisley.

[13] Although little is known about the exact nature of Tréhot's relationship with Renoir while she was modeling; she is said to have given birth to a baby boy named Pierre on 14 December 1868, but it is unclear what became of him and he may have died as an infant.

Renoir continued to secretly support Jeanne financially until he died (and after his death with the help of Ambroise Vollard), but never publicly or legally acknowledged that she was his daughter during his lifetime.