Constant Montald

Constant Montald (Ghent, 4 December 1862 – Brussels, 5 March 1944) was a Belgian painter, muralist, sculptor, and teacher.

In 1874, while receiving an education in decorative painting at the technical school of Ghent during the day, Montald also enrolled in the evening-classes of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. 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 Paris he painted his first monumental canvas, The Human Struggle, a 5 by 10m canvas which he later donated to the city of Ghent. There, the work was displayed in the grand hall of the Palace of Justice. It is on display on a wall of the hall of the Court of Appeal.

In 1891, Montald returned to Belgium, after a trip to Egypt. On the 9th of August 1892 he married Gabrielle Canivet, a fellow artist who specialized in decorative compositions for fabrics. In 1894 he, Jean Delville, Auguste Donnay and Leon Frederic participated in an exhibition in Brussels, organized by the esoteric study-group Kumris.

In 1896 Montald scored high marks in an entrance examn for professor of the decorative arts at the Academy of Fine arts in Brussels, a post he would hold until 1932. His students there include some of the best-known names of Belgian painters: René Magritte and Paul Delvaux, along with many others.

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. He also designed the decoration of the tympanum in the Royal Dutch Theater of Ghent(a building designed by architect Eduard De Vigne). It is a mosaïc made by De Smet.

During this period the art of Montald underwent a dramatic change. The esoteric circles he frequented wanted to ‘elevate art above reality in order to express ideas’. 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. Under these influences he painted several works in 1907, including “The Boat of the Ideal" and “The Fountain of Inspiration". These works were originally intended for the grant hall of the Brussels museum, but were only put on display there after passing through many different hands. Later, he painted “The Hallowed Tree". When he exhibited these three paintings in 1906 in Brussels, he won a golden medal.

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