The daughter of a French painter and miniaturist, Sophie Liénard gained a reputation in Paris as a painter on porcelain, and worked for manufacturers like Sèvres. During the July Monarchy (1830-48), she won the favour of the Orléans family, whose members she portrayed, as well as several of the leading political figures of that regime and the Second Empire (1848-52). Prominent members of the Spanish aristocracy posed for her in her rooms in the French capital, attracted by the elegant fashion of having their portrait painted on porcelain, a sophisticated technique that was not practised in Spain.