Hanna Pauli trained at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, where she met Eva Bonnier. The two met again in Paris at the Académie Colarossi and became housemates. Pauli remained in Paris from 1885 to 1887 and submitted a portrait of Finnish artist Venny Soldan to the 1887 Salon (on view in the exhibition). After marrying fellow artist Georg Pauli, the couple eventually returned to Sweden, where she concentrated primarily on portraiture. She won a third-class medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle.

A fully illustrated catalogue, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900, has been published by the American Federation of Arts and Yale University Press. Along with an art-historical overview by curator Laurence Madeline, the catalogue includes essays by Jane R. Becker, collections management associate, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richard Kendall, former curator at large, Clark Art Institute; Bridget Alsdorf, associate professor, History of Art, Princeton University; and Vibeke Hansen, curator, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo.