At an early age, Soyer, née Jones, became a pupil of the Belgian painter François Simonau (1783–1859), who in 1820 had married her mother. She was an artistic prodigy and received relentless instruction from Simonau. Between 1823 and 1843 fourteen of her pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, thirty-eight at the British Institution and fourteen at the Suffolk Street Gallery.
