Born in Ghent in 1901, Suzanne Van Damme studied at the Royal Academies of Fine Arts of Ghent and Brussels, as well as at the Studio L’Effort in Brussels. Initially influenced by Post-Impressionism, she developed a close relationship with James Ensor, who became an important mentor and subject of her early work. In the early 1930s, she moved to Paris, where she met the Italian painter and poet Bruno Capacci, whom she later married, and became connected to the literary and artistic circles of the avant-garde.
During the 1940s, Van Damme moved toward Surrealism, forming friendships with artists and writers including André Breton, Paul Éluard, and Belgian Surrealists such as Marcel Lecomte and Paul Colinet. She participated in the 1947 International Exhibition of Surrealism in Paris organized by Breton and Marcel Duchamp. Her paintings from this period combine dreamlike landscapes, hybrid figures, and fantastical imagery influenced by both Surrealism and the tradition of fantastic art.