1880
September 28: Carles Antoni Cosme Damià Casagemas Coll is born on Carrer Conde del Asalto, Barcelona, the son of Manuel Casagemas Labrós and Neus Coll Vendrell and the youngest of seven children, the rest being Josefa, Mercedes, Joan, Joana, Lluïsa and Manuel.
1896-1898
He trains at Fèlix Urgellès’s stage design workshop and, possibly, with Modest Urgell. He paints Marina (Seascape), one of his first works. He establishes contacts with the Colla del Safrà (Saffron Group), above all with Joaquim Mir and Isidre Nonell. He paints El mercat (The Market), under the influence of Mir.
He sets up a studio at no. 57, Carrer Conde del Asalto. Here, literary soirées are held and ‘fried’ drawings are executed. He produces one of his first ‘fried’ drawings, Pastor pirinenc (Pyrenean Shepherd), influenced by Nonell.
A suicide attempt, according to an account by Manolo Hugué.
June 1897: The tavern-cum-exhibition hall Els Quatre Gats is opened. Casagemas becomes a regular visitor to the venue.
May 1898: He enrols at the Infantry Academy, where he sits French and drawing examinations.
December 1898: His father dies.
1899
Beginning–or intensification– of his relationship with Picasso, who executes numerous portraits of him.
May 11: The journal Quatre Gats publishes his poems El llamp and Les il·lusions.
June: He is awarded one of the prizes for the puppet shows organised by Els Quatre Gats for the piece Lo gat perdut, which is performed at the venue.
Together with Ramon Pichot, he paints the curtain for the Els Quatre Gats puppet theatre.
1900
From January to the autumn, Casagemas and Picasso share a studio at no. 17, Carrer Riera de Sant Joan.
Exhibition at Els Quatre Gats of the poster he entered for the 1900 Carnival contest organised by the journal Pèl i Ploma.
A period of convalescence in Sitges, where he awaits a visit by Picasso.
January 21: The daily L’Eco de Sitges publishes his poem Amor gris.
February: He and Picasso are awarded second prize in the Carnival poster competition.
March 26 – April 10: One-man exhibition of drawings at Els Quatre Gats.
July 26: The journal Joventut publishes his poem Somni.
End of July: Along with other artists, Picasso possibly among them, he exhibits a total of four works (two parades and two musical cafés) at Els Quatre Gats.
End of July – beginning of August: At Els Quare Gats he exhibits his portrait of Pompeu Gener as the Count-Duke of Olivares.
End of September – October: First sojourn in Paris with Picasso. Having occupied a succession of studios, they finally settle at no. 49, Rue Gabrielle, the studio that Isidre Nonell had abandoned when he left Paris. Contacts with the Catalan colony. Casagemas meets Germaine Gargallo through Nonell. He becomes immediately obsessed with her and executes a number of portraits. He paints the oils Montmartre and Carrer de París.
November: Casagemas and Picasso receive their first visit from the dealer Pere Mañach. Manuel Pallarès comes to Paris, entrusted by Casagemas’s mother with the mission of taking care of her son.
Mid December: Casagemas and Picasso return to Barcelona to spend Christmas.
New Year: They celebrate the New Year in Málaga, because Picasso needs money from his uncle Salvador in order to be granted exemption from military service. They stay at the Hostal Tres Naciones.
1901
January: They join in the nightlife of Málaga and Casagemas executes his Cafè d’Espanya. Obsessed with Germaine, he sends her letters from Málaga. He begins to drink heavily and, after an argument, he breaks off his relationship with Picasso.
January 28: Picasso leaves Casagemas behind in Málaga and travels alone to Madrid to begin what was intended to be their joint project, the journal Arte Joven. Casagemas returns to Barcelona.
February 7: He arrives in Barcelona. Instead of returning to Paris, he goes to Madrid, although he fails to make amends with Picasso. He returns to Paris.
February 14-15: Arrival in Paris. He moves into Manuel Pallarès’s studio at no. 130, Boulevard de Clichy, together with Manolo Hugué, who has just come to the city.
February 17: To celebrate his imminent return to Barcelona, he invites his friends (Pallarès, Manolo and Alexandre Riera) and the two girls (Germaine and Odette) to supper at the Hippodrome restaurant. At the ends of the supper, having severely rebuked Germaine, he gives her seven letters and fires a shot at her, but misses. Believing he has killed her, he shoots himself in the temples and is rushed to the Bichat Hospital, where he dies in the Jarjavay ward at eleven that night. He is buried at the Saint-Ouen cemetery, París. According to Le Matin, one of the seven letters was to apologise to the prefect of police, while the remaining six were for ‘friends who lived in Paris and Madrid’.