 Marie Emma Éloïse Françoise de Villermont was born at Saint-Josse-ten-Noode on 16 August 1848, the eldest of nine children of the industrialist and his second wife, Marie-Adélaïde Licot, and the granddaughter of admiral .Training as a painter, Villermont was a member of the Cercle des femmes peintres from 1888.Besides painting, she dedicated herself to writing for such periodicals as "La Revue générale" and "La femme belge" (which she also supported financially from 1913 to 1925).