Biography
1840
Birth of Claude Monet on November 14 in Paris.

1845
The family moves to Le Havre where Monet develops a reputation for the caricatures he loves to draw.

1856
Claude Monet meets Eugène Boudin at Le Havre who plays a very important role in the development of his technique. Boudin encourages him to paint outdoors.

1859
Monet leaves for Paris and enters the 'Académie Suisse' where he probably meets Pissaro.

1862
Monet joins the studio of Charles Gleyre, a Swiss painter who lives in Paris. The studio attracts a large number of talented artists; he meets Bazille, Lepic, Renoir, Sisley.

1863
Monet discovers Manet's paintings at Martinet's where his work is exhibited, and paints outdoors with Bazille in the forest of Fontainebleau.

1864
Monet is visiting Boudin at Honfleur. He finds himself at the St-Siméon farm with Bazille and Jongkind. He meets with first admirer, Gaudibert.

1865
Camille Doncieux, his future wife and Bazille pose for his " Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe ". This canvas was modified following the advice of Courbet. He is not satisfied with his work and renounces to exhibit it at the Salon.

1867
Monet is at Sainte-Adresse when his first-born child Jean is born in Paris. He interrupts the outdoors work due to eyesight troubles.

Selfportrait

1868
With Courbet and Manet, he participates to a maritime exhibition at Le Havre. Suicidal attempt. Monet receives a pension of M. Gaudibert allowing him to pursue his work. He leaves for Fécamp and Etretat.

1870
Monet marries Camille, Courbet is his best man. When the war starts, he finds refuge in London where he meets Pissaro and Daubigny. The latter one presents him to the marchand Durand-Ruel who buys several of his canvases and will exhibit his work numerous times. In London, Monet discovers Turner and the English landscape painters. He returns to France and settles in Argenteuil after a journey to Holland and Antwerp. The Argenteuil period is the culmination point of Impressionism. Manet, Renoir, Caillebotte and Sisley paint there in his presence.
Claude Monet by Renoir

1874
Monet takes part in the first Impressionist exhibition at Nadar's.

1876
Monet meets Ernest and Alice Hoschedé who buy some of his work.

Claude Monet by Edouard Manet



1878
Birth of Michel Monet, his second son. Thanks to the purchases by Manet, the Monet family settles at Vétheuil alongside the Seine in the company of the Hoschedé family, who are ruined and who are forced to sell their collection of Impressionist paintings for a nickel and a dime. Several paintings of that time period are presented at the fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879.

1879
Camille dies at Vétheuil. Alice Hoschedé takes care of the family of Claude Monet in addition to her own six children.



1883
Monet rents the house at Giverny. He will reside there for 43 years, until his death.

1886
Durant Ruel presents 300 oil paint and pastel works by the impressionists of Paris. Monet also takes part in the "Exposition des XX" in Brussels.

1890
Monet buys the house at Giverny and starts the works for the creation of the waterlilies basin.



1891
Death of Ernest Hoschedé. Monet exhibits the series of the "Hay Stacks" and the one of the "Poplars alongside the Epte River" at Durand-Ruel's.

1892
Monet paints the series of the Cathedrals. In July, he marries Alice Raingo, widow of Ernest Hoschedé.

1900
Monet starts the compositions of the Waterlilies and travels to London to paint the views of the Thames.

1907
First symptoms of the cataract.

1909
The 48 landscapes of "Waterlilies", painted between 1904 and 1906 and exhibited at Durand-Ruel, have great success.

1911
Death of his wife Alice at Giverny.

1914
Death of Jean, the firstborn son of Claude Monet. His daughter-in-law, Blanche, looks after him until his death.

1918
Claude Monet decides to donate twelve large canvasses of "Waterlilies" to France. They are installed at the Orangerie in Paris in two oval rooms especially arranged for them. He finishes them in 1926.


From left to right : Mme Kuroki, Claude Monet, Lily Butler, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet et Georges Clemenceau.


1923
Monet, almost blind, has surgery at the cataract.

1926
Monet still paints at the beginning of the year. He dies on December 5th. He is burried in his family grave at Giverny, in the presence of Georges Clémenceau.