She was the eldest of seven children of Derk van Houten and Barbara Elisabeth Meihuizen.

Gerkens Arnaud helped her drawing, while her painting was aided by her husband and her cousin Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

In 1874, together with Gerardina Jacoba van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Kate Bisschop-Swift and Margaretha Roosenboom, she painted "Hague orphans", a painting for the then Queen Sophie on the occasion of the 25-years royal jubilee of her husband, King Willem III.

She exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

Her work has been exhibited in numerous countries, including Australia, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Austria and the US.