(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 t
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