She was a laundry woman's daughter and was working as a model for Montmartre painters like Renoir. While posing she tried to learn how the masters did their painting. At home she used everything to draw and paint: charcoal, old bits of paper, walls. Then she went to Edgar Degas to show him her portofolio. That day she got wings! Her son went too to be a well known painter: His name: Maurice Utrillo.

She had love affairs among others with Toulouse-Lautrec and Erik Satie