Chronology

1841 Born in Paris, into a working-class family from Moulins.

1857  Starts  working at the age of 15, in his uncle's store , while attending evening art lessons.

1860s Begins working on the Paris-Orleans railway line, drawing during his free time. Quits his job to begin attending the Academy Suisse, where he met lifelong friends Cezanne & Pissarro.

1868 Begins working as a night employee in the highways department, while painting during the day.

1870s Works with Pissarro in Pontoise, a village of farmers hardly affected by industrialization, sharing Picasso's love for landscape painting & his bent for carefully constructed composition. Often visits Paul Gachet in Auvers, a medical doctor practising in a working district in Paris, who was a socialist, a free-thinker, & a regular at the Café Guerbois, who supplied them with food & housing.

1874 Exhibits with the Impressionists, as well as at the Salon des Refusés.

mid 1880s Becomes a friend of Van Gogh, and some of his paintings were sold by Théo Van Gogh.

1886  Gets married his cousin Marie-Joséphine Charreton, a school teacher who supported him financially.

1890s Starts using very expressive colours, anticipating the Fauves.

1891 Wins at the national lottery, which enabled him to concentrate on his painting & to move regularly between Agay, Crozant, & Saint-Palais-sur-Mer.

1903-1904 Travels to Holland.

1927 Dies at the age of 86.