Cramer came from a wealthy merchant family in
Hamburg. Along with her sister, the painter
Helene Cramer, she could begin training as a painter only after her father's death in 1882. Her first teacher was the Hamburg artist
Theobald Riefesell, followed by the painters
Carl Rodeck and
Hinrich Wrage. In 1890, she went to
Antwerp to train under
Eugène Joors, who taught in the tradition of the
Dutch school. She primarily painted floral
still lifes with him. Back in Hamburg, she attracted the attention of the
art gallery director
Alfred Lichtwark as a painter of flowers and fruit. In line with Lichtwark's intentions, she worked primarily with the local flora rather than reproduce the overly popular, formulaic
Makartbouquets (bouquets of artificial or dried flowers used for decoration, popular in
Hans Makart's style of interior design). Cramer exhibited her work at the
Palace of Fine Arts and
The Woman's Building at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. From 1898, Cramer turned her attention to new subjects and worked on
landscapes and
portraits. Her style now became
impressionistic. Nevertheless, floral still lifes still remained the focus of her work. Via Lichtwark Cramer and her sister became acquainted with younger painters in Hamburg such as
Ernst Eitner,
Arthur Illies, and
Paul Kayser, who founded the Hamburg Artists' Club in 1897. Both Cramer sisters exhibited their paintings together with them, but were not part of the Artists' Club. In return, the Cramers' house became a meeting place for artists and art lovers. In addition, Molly Cramer promoted young artists by buying their works and also funded study tours for Ernst Eitner. Cramer exhibited her paintings in
Moscow,
Budapest,
London, and
Chicago. Towards the end of her life, she suffered a decline in her standard of living and was forced to sell paintings from her collection. She eventually lived with a younger relative and died on 18 January 1936 in Hamburg. The tombstones of Helene and Molly Cramer are at the Hamburg
Ohlsdorf Cemetery in the Garden of Women. == Selected works ==