She traveled through Europe and painted in various places in Belgium, France and Italy. Her oeuvre is varied: portraits, various types of still lifes, genre, figure and animal performances. The Flemish neo-impressionist painter Théo van Rysselberghe was an inspiration for her. She painted in the Zeeland town of Veere and is therefore counted among the Veerse Joffers [nl].[2]
Van Dam van Isselt was the subject of a portrait by Jan Toorop in 1905.[3]
She has paintings in several collections including the Teylers Museum.[4] Isselt's work was included in the 1939 exhibition and sale Onze Kunst van Heden (Our Art of Today) at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.[5]
She married, and divorced, twice. She married in her home town in 1892 to the painter and mechanical engineer Evert Cornelis Ekker [nl].[6] They divorced in 1907 after they had had two children. She remarried on 12 May 1909 in Utrecht to the art critic Albert Charles Auguste Plasschaert [nl]. Their marriage was dissolved in 1921.[1]