There he won in 1885 a competition and received a grant from the city which enabled him to live and study briefly in Paris with fellow artist Henri Privat-Livemont at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1886, Montald went on to win the Belgian Prix de Rome for his work "Diagoras in triumph carried by his sons, victors of the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece".

In his Roman workshop, Montald painted another enormous decorative work titled "The Eolian Harps" (currently being kept in the depot of the Museum of Fine arts of Belgium in Brussels), that was displayed at the Salon of Ghent in 1892.

In the same year, he participated in the Premier Salon d’Art Idéaliste of Jean Delville, where he exhibited alongside Victor Rousseau and Léon Frédéric.

After being impressed by the mysterious and overwhelming San-Marco basilica in Venice, Montald was intrigued by the way golden backgrounds influenced the color of the paintings.

While Montald's first works were strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, gradually he focused on integrating humanity with their floral environment: Trees with winding branches, curtains of flowers and lawns strewn with surreal growths.

Soon, The "Villa Montald" became a meeting place for the intellectual elite he surrounded himself with, including friends like Emile Verhaeren (whom he met in 1989 in the studio of sculptor Charles Van der Stappen) and Stefan Zweig.

Driven by sympathetic feelings towards Belgium's allies in the First World War, Montald donated this work to France, which knighted him into the Legion of Honour.

During his 37-year tenure (until 1932) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Montald influenced many young students, René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Jan De Cooman, Jean Maillard and Edgard Tytgat among them.

His heir and executor of his will, Jean Goffin, his wife's cousin, would later sell Montald's property (including his villa, park and gardens) to the town of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.