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1840 : Oscar-Claude Monet was born on the 14th November in Paris.
Around 1845 : The Monet family settle in Le Havre
Around 1856-58 : First success, thanks to caricatures ; Monet meets Boudin, who will introduce him to painting.
1858 : One painting sent to the ‘Exposition Municipale’ in Le Havre .With the help of his family, he goes to Paris ; contacts with Troyon and with the realist circle, thanks to Amand Gautier ; He attends the ‘Swiss Academy’, where he probably meets Pissarro.
1861- 62 : Military service in Algeria ; On returning to Le Havre, meets Jongkind during autumn 1862.
1862-63 : In Paris, he frequents the ‘Gleyre’ studio ,where he becomes close to Bazille, Renoir and probably Sisley.
1864 : Stays in Honfleur with Bazille , then with Boudin and Jongkind. Difficulties with his family.
1865 : First participation in the ‘Exhibition’ and first success with two landscapes ; he starts ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’, which is almost finished by the end of the year. Courbet congratulates him on this work.
1866 : Leaves ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ unfinished ; success at the ‘Exhibition’ with ‘Camille’, particularly admired by Zola ; meets Manet ; lives in Sèvres, where he undertakes ‘Les Femmes au Jardin’, then goes to Honfleur ; financial difficulties ;
1867 : Lives with Bazille at 20, rue Visconti ; refused by the ‘Exhibition’ ; stays at Sainte-Adresse ;his future wife, Camille Doncieux, gives birth to their first child , Jean.
1868 : One painting accepted at the ‘Exhibition’ ; financial difficulties ; assistance from the Gaudiberts , art lovers from Le Havre ; he receives a gold medal at the ‘Maritime International Exhibition’ in Le Havre. (October)
1869 : Refused by the ‘Exhibition’ ; stays in Saint-Michel, near Bougival, where he works alongside Renoir ; he also paints in Louveciennes with Pissarro ;
1870 : Refused by the ‘Exhibition’ ; he marries Camille Doncieux ; after the declaration of war, hetakes refuge, during the summer, in England with his family ;
1870-71 : Stays in London, where he meets Pissarro again and also the art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel ;Travels to Zaandam, Holland then back to France, where he settles, at the end of 1871 in Argenteuil.
1872 : Stays in Rouen and Le Havre ; he also works in Argenteuil ;
1874 : First Impressionist Exhibition, in which Monet notably shows the painting ‘Impression, soleillevant’ which is the origin of ‘Impressionism’.
1876 : Participates in the second ‘Impressionist Exhibition’ , particularly with landscapes of Argenteuil and ‘La Japonaise’ ; decoration for Ernest and Alice Hoschédé in their Rottembourg Castle in Montgeron.
1877 : Views of ‘ La Gare Saint-Lazare’, some appearing at the third ‘Impressionist Exhibition’ of that year.
1878 : Constrained to leave Argenteuil at the beginning of the year, he temporarily settles in Paris, 26, rue d’Edimbourg, where his second son, Michel, is born ; moves soon after to Vétheuil.
1879 : Twenty-nine works shown at the 4th Impressionist Exhibition, now called ‘ Independent Artists’. (28,av. de l’Opéra ; 10th April- 11th May) Camille Monet dies on 5th September .
1880 : Monet makes the best possible use of the exceptional subject matter provided by the breaking-upof the ice on the river, during early January, resulting in several spectacular paintings. With a large landscape of ‘Lavacourt’, the painter is accepted at the Exhibition (opening 1st May) and also takes part in the 5th Painting Exhibition of Independent Artists. First solo exhibition on the premises of the review ‘La Vie Moderne’ (opening 7th June with eighteen paintings). Monet sends a few works, including the Exhibition painting, to the ‘Exposition de la Société des Amis des Arts’ in Le Havre (August 1880). While staying at his brother’s home in Rouen, he visits ‘Petites-Dalles’ on the Normandy coast.
1881 : From 17th February, Durand-Ruel regularly purchases Monet’s work ; stays in Fécamp (March to April), then Trouville and Sainte-Adresse (September) ; Settles with Alice Hoschédé and children in Poissy, villa Saint-Louis (December).
1882 : After a few days in Dieppe, stays in Pourville at ‘A la Renommée des Galettes’ (15th February to mid-April). Thirty-five works shown at the 7th Exhibition of Independent Artists held at the ‘Panorama de Reichshoffen (251, rue Saint Honoré) in March in aid of Durand-Ruel, affected by the crash of ‘l’Union Générale’ (February). During summer, settles with Alice and children at ‘villa Juliette’ in Pourville (June), before returning to Poissy (5th October) after short stay in Rouen ; undertakes decoration of sitting-room in Durand-Ruel’s apartment (35, rue de Rome),on which he works until 1885.
1883 : Spends a few days in Le Havre, then on to ‘l’Hotel Blanquet’ in Etretat (end of January- 21st February) ; Durand-Ruel organizes a solo exhibition of fifty-six works by Monet (March) ; The artist settles in Giverny with Alice Hoschédé and children (April). During second fortnight of December, travels with Renoir along Mediterranean coast to Genoa. They meet Cézanne in Aix-en Provence.
1884 : Stays in Bordighera, on the ‘Riviera du Ponant’, then in Menton (January to mid-April). Goes to Etretat (August).
1885 : Participates, for the first time, in the ‘International Exhibition’ organized by the art dealer Georges Petit ( opening 15th May at 8, rue de Sèze). Settles in Etretat with Alice and children in house lent by the singer Faure ( mid-September). Alone from 10th October, boards at the ‘Hotel Blanquet’ until mid-December , often meeting Maupassant.
1886 : Returns to Etretat (February) and sends ten works to the ‘Exposition des XX’ in Brussels (February) ; Durand-Ruel exibits some forty paintings by Monet at the exhibition ‘Œuvres à l’huile et au pastel des Impressionistes de Paris’ in New York (April- May). Monet spends ten days in Holland (27th April – 6th May) where he is invited by the Baron D’Estournells de Constant, Secretary to the Embassy of the French Legation in The Hague. Takes part in the 5th International Exhibition at the Petit Gallery (opening 15th June). Stays in Belle-Ile (September- November) where he makes the acquaintance of Gustave Geffroy, the art critic for ‘La Justice’ ; ends his trip to Brittany with a visit to Octave Mirbeau in Noirmoutier (late November).
1887 : Takes part in the 6th International Exhibition at the Petit Gallery (8th May – 8th June) ; Short stay in London (August) ; thanks to Whistler, shows at the exhibition of ‘The Royal Society of British Artists’ (November).
1888 : Works in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins (mid January to early May) ; Stays in Antibes at the same time as the painter Harpignies, at the ‘Château de la Pinède’ , an artists’ boarding house, on the recommendation of Maupassant , who he meets in Cannes. Théo van Gogh exhibits at 19, boulevard Montmartre (June) the ten ‘Marines d’Antibes’ ( as Félix Fénéon called them) which he had bought from Monet on behalf of the Boussod-Valadon Gallery. Short trip to London. (July).
1889 : Geffroy takes Monet, Louis Mullern and Frantz Jourdain , for a few days, to the ‘Vallée de la Creuse’, where they visit the poet Maurice Rollinat in Fresselines (second fortnight of February) ; Enthusiastic about the region, Monet returns to stay there from March to mid-May. Exhibition ‘Monet- Rodin’ at the Petit Gallery (June) ; Three works shown at the ‘Exposition Centennale de l’art français’ opening in May at the same time as the ‘Universal Exhibition’, along with ‘Olympia’ by Manet ; Monet starts a fund in order to offer this work to the ‘Musée du Louvre’ ; After a very hard campaign, he manages to have the painting accepted by the State in 1890 for the ‘Musée du Luxembourg’.
1890 : He acquires the property in Giverny, where he builds a new studio and embellishes the garden (autumn).
1891 : Fifteen versions of the ‘Meules’ are shown at the exhibition ‘Recent works by Cl. Monet’ in the Durand-Ruel Gallery (4 – 16 May)
1892 : Durand-Ruel exhibits some fifteen paintings of ‘Les Peupliers’ ( 29th February – 10th March) ; Monet stays in Rouen, where he paints ‘Les Cathédrales’ (February till mid-April) ; In July, he marries Alice Hoschédé ( Ernest Hoschédé died in March 1891) The name of the painter is refused for a decoration at the ‘Hotel de Ville de Paris’ ( November).
1893 : Again working in Rouen on ‘Les Cathédrales’ (February till mid- April). Acquires a plot of land to the south of his house in Giverny (5th February), where he undertakes the digging of the famous ‘bassin des nymphéas’ (pond with white water lilies) and the arrangement of the ‘Jardin d’eau’ (water garden).
1894 : November is marked by Cézanne’s visit to Giverny, where Monet arranges a meeting with Geffroy, Rodin and Clémenceau (28th November).
1895 : Trip to Norway (end of January – early April) ; Durand-Ruel devotes an exhibition to Monet (10th – 31st May) in which , among other paintings, twenty versions of ‘Les Cathédrales de Rouen’ are presented.
1896 : Works in Pourville and Varangeville (mid -February till April).
1897 : Returns to these same places (mid-January till March).
1898 : Georges Petit organizes an exhibiton of Monet’s most recent works ( opening 1st June), notably featuring ‘les Matinées sur la Seine’.
1899 : Stays in London (Autumn).
1900 : Returns to London (February). With some recent paintings, about ten versions of the ‘Bassin des Nymphéas’ are shown at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris (22nd November – 15th December).
1901 : A similar exhibition is presented by Durand –Ruel in New York (February).Stays in London (February – April) .
1902 : Six ‘Vues de Vétheuil’ painted by Monet during the summer of 1900 are revealed to the public in a joint exhibition alongside Pissarro’s recent work ‘ Œuvres Récéntes de Pissarro et Nouvelle Série de Monet (Vétheuil) ‘ at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery ( 20th-28th February)
1904 : Thirty-seven ‘Vues de la Tamise à Londres’ (Views of the Thames in London) (1900-1904) are the theme of a new exhibition at the Durand- Ruel Gallery (9th May – 4th June). Monet went, it would seem, to Spain to see the works of Velasquez (October) ;Trip to London (December) ;
1908 : Stays in Venice (October – December).
1909 : An exhibition called ‘Les Nymphéas, Série de paysages d’eau ‘ takes place at the Durand-Ruel Gallery (6th May- 5th June ) comprising forty-eight works. Monet may have returned to Venice ( contested by several authors).
1911 : Alice Monet dies on 19th May.
1912 : The Bernheim-Jeune Gallery shows twenty-nine ‘Vues de Venise’ (28th May – 8th June) ;
1914 : Monet’s elder son , Jean, who had married Blanche Hoschédé in June 1897, dies prematurely on 10th February. Monet orders the construction of a special studio , to be finished in 1916, in order to work on his large-scale compositions ‘ Les Nymphéas’.
1922 : On 12th April , the act of donation of the ‘Les Nymphéas’ panels to the State is signed, thus ratifying the promise made to Clémenceau by the artist on the day after the 1918 Armistice.
1923 : Monet undergoes a cataract operation ; he had felt the first sight disorders in 1908, the disease being diagnosed in 1912.
1924 : Durand-Ruel exhibits some of ‘Les Nymphéas’ in New York (February).
1926 : Monet receives a visit from Vuillard and Roussel in Giverny (8th June). The artist dies ,at the age of eighty – six, on 5th December.
Extract from ‘Monet au Muséé d’Orsay’ by Sylvie Patin , Paris, RMN, 2004
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