Emmy Thornam first attended drawing classes at the Technical School in Horsens and later studied at Vilhelm Kyhn’s (1819–1903) Drawing School for Women from 1873 to 1875. After beginning her career as a landscape painter, she later focused on floral painting, which she was able to make a living from. She trained under O.A. Hermansen (1849–1897) and studied with the floral painter Pierre Bourgogne (1838–1904) in Paris in 1894.

As a floral painter, her style evolved over the course of her career from a more traditional and decorative approach to a looser technique with greater compositional coherence. Emmy Thornam exhibited frequently throughout her life and made a living as both an artist and a writer. Among her works is the memoir “My Sister and I”, which provides a nuanced insight into the life of a female artist in the late 19th century.