Her talent for portrait painting soon became obvious and she quickly outgrew Pfyffer's studio. Her opportunity came when her sister Johanna married a businessman from Berlin. Johanna and her husband agreed to let her live with them there, and she found a place as a student in a special women's class given by Karl Gussow. In 1882, she had her first exhibition with an art dealer in Zürich and it was well received. That same year, she followed a friend to Paris, where she found a position in the studios of Carolus-Duran and Jean-Jacques Henner. By 1887, she was able to support herself with sales and commissions and no longer had to depend on her parents. She was a participant in the Salon and won a Silver Medal at the Exposition Universelle (1889). She exhibited her work at the Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.