The self-taught painter was first known in Montmartre as an artists' model. She posed for Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and other painters who associated at the Lapin Agile cabaret. She showed paintings at the Salon des Indépendants from 1909 to 1911, but Her talent as a painter was only recognized in the 1920s. She is the mother of the painter Maurice Utrillo.