[3] After her mother died when she was only five years old, Holten was brought up by her father in the affluent Østerbro district of Copenhagen.

He took great care of her, introducing her to the works of the Danish Golden Age painters, thanks to his friendships with Lundbye, Marstrand and Constantin Hansen.

After he died in 1875, she moved into the home of the painter Thorald Læssøe where she continued to have contacts with the artistic community.

[4][5] Holten studied drawing under Carl Thomsen, Laurits Tuxen and Frans Schwartz but as a painter she was essentially self-taught.

[5] She continued her studies in Paris together with her friends Elise Konstantin-Hansen, Edma Frølich and Sofie Holten.

[6] She became one of the avant-garde artists associated with Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler which had been established to provide an alternative to the traditional methods of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

[1] From 1883 and during the 1890s, she worked as a ceramist with artists such as Thorvald Bindesbøll and Theodor Philipsen at Johan Wallmann's pottery in Utterslev and at G. Eifrig's workshop in Valby.

[6] She designed one of the rooms, installing the green furniture which can now be seen in Michael and Anna Ancher's House in Skagen and which forms part of her painting Interiør med Falk og læsende Dreng i grønne Møbler (1904).

[1] After an extended stay in the United States, Holten returned to Denmark in 1910 to work with ceramics at the Royal Porcelain Factory (1910–1914) and at Bing & Grøndahl (1915–1918).