Elisabeth Chaplin was the niece of French painter Charles Chaplin. In 1900 her family moved to Italy, because of her father's job, first to Piemonte and afterwards to the Italian Riviera. It was there, in Lagueglia, that Elisabeth started to teach herself to paint, with no formal training and only the advice of Albert Besnard. When the Chaplin family took up residence at the Villa Rossi in Florence in 1904, Elisabeth had the chance to visit Francesco Gioli's studio and meet Giovanni Fattori.

Elisabeth's visits to the Uffizi Museum were decisive in her decision to focus on copying the classics. From 1905-8, she painted her first large canvas and in 1911 her Ritratto di Famiglia (Family Portrait) for the ...