Since women were not yet admitted to the academies he educated her and already in 1885 her painting De Oesters (The Oysters) was exhibited at a salon in Spa.

At the private Académie Julian she painted living and sometimes nude models (which was at that time in Belgium still forbidden for women).

In Paris, she frequently exhibited at the Salon de la Societé des Artistes Français.

de Hem exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

After Ceriez died on 2 Sep 1904 de Hem moved to Vorst (near Brussels) with her mother and her sister, where they lived in an Art Nouveau house designed by Ernest Blerot.