She was the daughter of Louis Aimé Waternau, french colonel commander of the Légion d'honneur after the Battle of Wörth, who died in 1879 . She became a pupil of Delphine Arnould de Cool-Fortin and showed work at the Paris Salon from 1878 when she showed a portrait of her father. Her work "By the Bank of a Stream" was included in the book "Women Painters of the World".