As a young woman, Augusta Dohlmann was taught drawing and painting by the flower painters O. D. Ottesen and O. A. Hermansen, and in 1878 she went to Paris and continued her studies with the French painter Tony Robert-Fleury (1837–1911). After her debut at Charlottenborg in 1880 she returned to Paris and continued her studies with the painters Gustave Courtois (1852–1923) and Raphaël Collin (1850–1916). With the help of a scholarship and ministerial support, she was able to make further study trips abroad and also visited the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy.

Dohlmann became especially known for her floral paintings and exhibited several of her works abroad as well, including in Paris, Chicago, and Berlin. Alongside her artistic work, Dohlmann was also a great advocate for promoting the educational opportunities of female artists. Among other things, she sat on a committee for the establishment of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' School of Art for Women (Kunstakademiets Kunstskole for Kvinder), which opened in 1888. She became one of the few women of her time who could make a living from painting, and she used part of her earnings to create a scholarship for female flower painters.