| 1844-1848 | went to school at the College Rollin friendship with Antonin Proust. |
| 1848/49 | trained as a sea cadet on a voyage to Brazil. |
| 1850-1856 | pupil at Couture's studio and the Academie Suisse; liaison with Suzanne Leenhoff. 1852 birth of his son Leon Koella. |
| 1853 | visited Florence and perhaps also Austria and Germany. |
| 1856 | travelled in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria and Italy. |
| 1857 | met Fantin-Latour. |
| 1858 | rejected by the Salon. |
| 1860 | took an apartment in the Batignolles Quarter, frequented the Cafe Guerbois. |
| 1861 | exhibited for the first time at the Salon - pictures in the realistic "Spanish" style - and was awarded "special mention"; began to paint subjects from "modern life". Met Degas. |
| 1862 | met Baudelaire. |
| 1863 | caused a scandal with his pictures in the Martinet gallery and the Salon des Refuses; married Suzanne Leenhoff. |
| 1865 | met Duret in Spain. |
| 1866 | became acquainted with Monet and Zola, who corresponded with him. |
| 1867 | he staged his own exhibition during the Paris World Fair. |
| 1868 | trip to London. |
| 1868/69 | Morisot and Gonzales became his students and models. |
| 1870/71 | military service in the National Guard, stayed in South West France during the Commune in Paris; Durand-Ruel bought many of his paintings. |
| 1872 | visited Holland. |
| 1873 | met Mallarme. |
| 1874 | visited Monet at Argenteuil; began to paint plein-air in an increasingly Impressionist manner. |
| 1875 | visited Venice. |
| 1878 | rejected by the Paris World Fair. |
| 1879 | murals in the city hall in Paris. |
| 1880 | exhibition at the gallery of the journal "La vie moderne" owned by the publisher Charpentier; spent the summer at Bellevue; contracted a fatal illness. |
| 1881 | received a medal 2nd class at the Salon; received into the Legion of Honour by the Gambetta government. |
| 1882 | Chevalier of the Legion of Honour; spent the summer at Rueil. |
| 1883 | last pastels; amputation of a leg, painful death. |
| 1884 | successful memorial exhibition and auction sale. |
| 1889/90 | "Olympia" bought by donations and presented to the state. |
