As the daughter of the sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen and the composer Carl -Nielsen, Anne Marie Telmanyi grows up with art and culture at her fingertips. Her childhood home forms the framework for an artistic environment where many of the great cultural figures of the time had their way.

She started at the Royal Danish Academy as early as 1909 and graduates in 1916. In 1925–26 she continues her education in Paris at the Académie Moderne with Othon Friesz and Fernand Léger. Together with her husband, the violinist Emil Telmányi, she makes many trips around Europe, but when the marriage dissolves in 1936 she moves back home to her mother's bequest residence.

Throughout her life, Telmányi fights for the rights of female artists. She is a member of the Society of Female Artists, and since she has no heirs to her estate, it goes to establish a foundation - Anne Marie Telmányi Foundation to support female artists over the age of 40.