Beaten by her mother, she ran away from home at the age of sixteen and was confined in a lunatic asylum. There she was a favorite of the nuns who cared for her. It was at a party they gave in her honor that Jane first displayed her joy in music and dancing. The performance convinced her caretakers that the girl might not be as mad as her mother insisted. Upon her release, she refused to return to her mother's home, finding her way instead into the dance halls of Paris. The city also provided her with an intellectual family that included great writers such as Oscar Wilde, Mallarmé, and Verlaine. After stints as a rider at the Hippodrome in the avenue de l'Alma, and as a cashier at the World's Fair of 1889, she began her career as a café dancer at the Moulin Rouge in the same year.

There she dressed always in red, and was the only performer who was allowed colored underwear - the others had to make do with white. At first she danced for applause, only later admitting the necessity of accepting a fee. The very opposite of La Goulue, her dancing reflected a refined, sensitive nature. She somehow managed to project a seductive and exotic, imaginative side as well - provocative yet virginal. There are many descriptions of her ambiguous grace and slim figure. She was popular at other venues in Paris and abroad, with a touring schedule that included a comedic role in The Belle of New York and even a tragic part in a production of Peer Gynt. When not performing, she frequented Parisian literary circles and was a regular spectator on the café-concert scene. Lautrec she counted as a friend. She appears several times in his art, always as a beautiful melancholic, withdrawn into her own emotions or the quivering frenzy of her dance.

The birth of a son put an end to Jane's dancing. In 1910 she married the painter Maurice Biais and left Paris. At his death she found herself penniless. She remained in provincial poverty and anonymity except for a single return, in later life, to a Paris she no longer recognized. Her admirers somehow tracked her down and, in 1941, arranged a celebratory "grand finale" for her in the capital - at which the white-haired Jane improvised a mesmerizing dance that brought back the grace of earlier years.

Posters featuring Jane Avril:

• Jane Avril (1893)
• Divan Japonais
• La Troupe de Mlle Eglantine
• The Ault & Wiborg Co.
• Jane Avril (1899)

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