During the German occupation of Alsace in 1870, her maternal grandparents came to settle in the outskirts of the city.

A native of Tarbes, her father had a military career and for about ten years the family followed his travels before settling in Algiers.

At the end of her secondary studies, during which she was passionate about Egyptology, Maria Manton fell ill for more than a year, which forced her to give up starting higher education and she began to draw.

She attended drawing classes and then the painting studio of the School of Fine Arts in Algiers from 1936 to 1942.

She also met Marcel Bouqueton and Sauveur Galliéro, with whom she exhibited in 1942, and Robert Martin, who later directed the avant-garde gallery Colline in Oran, then the painter Georges Ladrey.