Granbery and her elder sister, Henrietta, were natives of Norfolk, Virginia, but their family moved north when they were young, settling in New York City.

She later had lessons at the Cooper Union with Albert Fitch Bellows and at the National Academy of Design.

[4] The sisters lived together in Manhattan,[5] and continued to teach painting privately; among their pupils was Annie Cooper Boyd.

[6] Virginia Granbery was especially known for her fruit paintings, the majority of which have been lost; in her day, more of hers were reproduced by Louis Prang as lithographs than were those of any other artist.

[4] She taught at the Packer Institute for some time, where the art department more than doubled under her direction,[7] and may have left New York City after 1890.