Blossoming Garden, Sainte-Adresse

c. 1858

Meeting Eugène Boudin

In Le Havre the young caricaturist Monet met Eugène Boudin, who taught him to paint en plein air and took him along on painting excursions. Monet regarded Boudin as the teacher to whom he "owed everything."

April 1859

First trip to Paris

Monet arrived in Paris, immediately visited the Salon, and became a regular at the Brasserie des Martyrs, a gathering place for writers and artists. Two months later he decided to stay in the capital, declining to enter the École des Beaux-Arts.

c. February 1860

Académie Suisse: meeting Pissarro

In early 1860, probably in February, Monet enrolled at the Académie Suisse on the Île de la Cité, where he met Camille Pissarro.

April 1861 – November 1862

Military service in Algeria

Monet enlisted in the 1st Regiment of African Light Cavalry (Chasseurs d'Afrique) and arrived in Algeria in June 1861. In spring 1862 he contracted typhoid; his aunt bought him out of the army. The light and colors of North Africa, in his words, "contained the germ of my future researches."

28 June 1870

Married: Camille Doncieux

1870–1871

London exile

Evading conscription during the Franco-Prussian War, Monet lived in London, where he studied Constable and Turner, met Pissarro and Whistler, and became acquainted with his first and principal dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel — an encounter decisive for his career.