Her artistic career got off to an early start due to her having family ties with painters, and she finished her first painting at the young age of fourteen.

[2] By the age of twenty, she was exhibiting at the Salon where she received an Honorable Mentions and, four years later, she won a gold medal at the Amsterdam Exposition.

In 1890, she and her husband moved to Wissant, a small village on the Côte d'Opale, where they built a villa designed by the Belgian architect Edmond De Vigne [fr].

[5] She worked with Hélène Bertaux in her effort to open the École des Beaux-Arts to women students; a goal which was achieved in 1897.

In 1889, Vincent van Gogh painted his own version of one of her works, L’Homme Est en Mer (Her Man is Out to Sea).