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featured artists
Juan Manuel Blanes
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biography
(b. Montevideo, Uruguay, 1830; d. Pisa, Italy, 1901).
Blanes was most recognized for his history paintings and portraits of influential Latin Americans. His mother was Andalusian (Spain) and his father Argentine. He was self-taught, having left school at the age of 11 years. His parents separated and he moved to Cerrito, where he supported his mother and sister working as a typographer for the newspaper El Defensor de la Independencia Americana. He had been making paintings and color drawings that led him to teaching painting at the College of the Humanities in Salto. He gained recognition for a portrait he made of General Justo Jose de Urquiza, and was commissioned by the General to make other paintings of his residence and military victories. In 1857 he traveled to Buenos Aires where he painted his significant work, An Attack of Yellow Fever in Buenos Aires, that was eventually acquired by the Uruguayan government when it was exhibited in 1871. In 1859 he returned to Montevideo, Uruguay, and received a grant from the government to study in Europe. In 1860 he studied in Florence, Italy, under the painter Antonio Ciseri, noted for his history paintings and portraits. Blanes returned to South America in 1863. There he began to work on historical paintings and portraits of military heroes. He exhibited two works based on episodes in Chilean history in Santiago, Chile in 1873 at the Exposition de Santiago. He won a gold medal in the 1882 Continental Exhibition in Buenos Aires for his two paintings, La Paraguaya and El Ultimo Paraguay. He was commissioned to decorate the Rotunda of the Cemeterio Central in Montevideo. His paintings were later printed on stamps in 1895, 1896, and 1897. He continued to paint historical paintings up until his death in 1898. At the time Blanes was traveling in Italy and his remains were returned to their final resting place in the Pantheon Nacional in Uruguay. He was given a major commemorative exhibition in 1941 in Teatro Solis and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires.
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