1919
Born 24 December in Rodez, France.
1938
Begins training as a drawing teacher in Paris.
1939
Admitted to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, but quickly leaves. Sees exhibitions of Cézanne and Picasso before returning to Rodez.
1940
Drafted.
1941
Demobilised and admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier.
1942
Marries Colette Llaurens. Conscripted for STO, forced labour, ('Service de travail obligatoire') in Germany but goes underground and works as a omega replica winegrower with false papers for the remainder of the Occupation. Neither draws nor paints but becomes friends with French poet, Joseph Delteil through whom he meets Sonia Delauney who tells him about abstract art.
1946
Settles with Colette in Courbevoie. Unsuccessfully submits paintings to the Salon d'Automne.
1947
Rents his own wall space at the Salon des Surindépendants, where his paintings attract much attention.
1948
Moves to Montparnasse. Participates in Salon des réalités nouvelles and O. Domnick's travelling exhibition in Germany, Grosse Ausstellung französischer abstracter Malerei, for which one of his works is the poster. Visited by James Sweeney, late director of the Guggenheim Museum who proceeds to write often about Soulages as well as recommending and including him in important exhibitions.
1949
First one-man show at Galerie Lydia Conti. First sale to a museum, Museé de Grenoble. First stage design commission for Roger Vaillant at the Théâtre des Mathurins, Paris.
1950
Sells a painting to FNAC, which from 1952 is on permanent loan to the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
1952
Creates his first etchings after a visit from Mme Lacourière and Atelier Lacourière.
1954
First one-man show in the USA at the Samuel Kootz Gallery.
1958
Designs and builds a house and studio, with Colette, in Sète, the South of France.
1960
First retrospective travelling exhibition shown around Germany.
1963
Draws cartoons for large tapestries for the Maison de la Radio in Paris, the Hochschule St. Gallen, Switzerland and the Ministry of Finance in Paris.
1966
Designs a glass mosaic window replica hublot for the Suermond-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, Germany.
1968
Designs a large ceramic decoration for a skyscraper in Pittsburgh.
1974
Buys a studio close to the apartment in the Rue de Saint-Victor.
1975
Created the first of three bronze reliefs, his only sculptural works, based on earlier etchings.
1979
Soulages presents a new type of painting at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
1982
A work is suspended with cables in the foyer of the new concert hall in Aarhus, Denmark.
1987
Begins work on the French state's commission of 104 new windows for the Romanesque abbey church in Conques.
1994
Soulages' work appears in three volumes of Pierre Encrevé's catalogue raisonné.
2005
First living artist to be exhibited in Zaha Hadid's new extension to the museum Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen.
2006
Awarded the Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art.
2007
Inauguration of a permanent hanging of many of Soulages's works at the Musée Fabre, Montpellier.
2009
Retrospective exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris, seen by over 500,000 people, it was the fourth most visited exhibition in the history of the Pompidou (after Dali, Matisse and Kandinsky).
Present
Lives and works in Paris and Sète, France.