In the early 1870s, Emilie Mundt began training as an artist - first two months with the painter Jørgen Roed (1808–1888) and afterwards at Vilhelm Kyhn's (1819–1903) drawing school for women, where she met her life companion, the painter Marie Luplau (1848–1925). In 1874, the women applied to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, but were both rejected. Women were not admitted to the Academy until 1888, with the establishment of the Academy of Fine Arts' School of Art for Women (Kunstakademiets Kunstskole for Kvinder). After being rejected, and on the advice of painter Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann (1819–1881), the two women travelled to Munich to further their education. Here, unlike in Denmark, women were given the opportunity to draw after nude models. In 1878, Mundt made her debut at Charlottenborg. In 1882–84, Mundt and Luplau went to Paris to study at the private French art academy, the Académie Colarossi where, among many others, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) and Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) had been studying.

After her stay in Paris, Emilie Mundt was influenced by French realism in her depictions of daily life, which often involved children's conditions, e.g. the painting From the asylum in Istedgade, dated 1886, at the Museum of Copenhagen.