She was accepted to the Finnish Art Society in 1890–1891, where her class was taught by Gunnar Berndtson. In the Fall of 1890 she got engaged to sculptor Emil Wikström. The two went to study together at Paris in 1891–1892. She won third prize in a competition with By the wash basin in 1893 and the same year she was granted a stipend. In Spring 1895 she was back at Paris and completed Inspiration there. However, by this point she had separated with Wikström, who married her friend Alice Högström in 1895. In the late 1890s she painted a number of paintings of local Finnish sceneries and she also did altar paintings.
