Her husband was appointed artist to Charles Texier's archaeological mission, which was sent to excavate Magnesia ad Sipylum (now Manisa in Turkey).

She continued teaching and writing, gaining a certain notoriety under the name Madame Cavé and obtaining several official commissions to produce paintings for churches.

"[10] In 1847 she exhibited paintings of children—"its touch is light and its colour luminous—she likes beautiful shimmering fabrics and coquettish adjustments, and the luxury of ornaments of the old courts".

The Minister of Public Education trialled Cavé's method in normal primary schools in Caen and Douai in 1862 and later the same year in those in Chartres.

[15] The assessors' arguments in favour of drawing training did not change the fact that they saw it as a pastime rather than an industrial skill—it is still impossible to say how far these methods were applied, if not by their inventors.

These two small books combined a learning method, practical advice, reflections on the theoretical order of arts and crafts and moral treatments of women's place in society.

[16] Alexandre Dumas (père) made her a character in one of the chapters of his memoirs, published between 1852 and 1856, in which he interwove some facts agreeing with historical documents with other contradictory, incoherent and mostly unverifiable ones.

He portrayed her as a mad romantic young woman, a married artist and cousin of her first husband Boulanger, to whom Dumas dedicated the chapter.