Uruguayan painter (1830?1901)
Juan Manuel Blanes
(June 8, 1830 ? April 15, 1901) was a
Uruguayan
painter of the
Realist
school.
Life and work
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Blanes was born in
Montevideo
,
Uruguay
, in 1830. He was raised by his mother, with whom he relocated to the countryside in his early teens. Blanes took an interest in drawing at this point, and shortly afterwards, was hired as an illustrator for a Montevideo news daily,
El Defensor de la Independencia Americana
. Earning extra income with
watercolors
, he returned to his mother and, in 1854, established his first
atelier
.
[1]
He married Maria Linari, and in 1855, the couple settled in
Salto
, where he worked as a portrait painter. They relocated to
Concepcion del Uruguay
(across the
Uruguay River
, in
Argentina
) in 1857, and Blanes was commissioned by Argentine President
Justo Jose de Urquiza
to complete a number of portraits, allegories and landscapes to grace his nearby
estancia
, the
Palacio San Jose
. Returning to Montevideo in 1861, the talented painter obtained a scholarship from the Uruguayan government, and with it, traveled with his family to
Florence
,
Italy
, where he studied under
Antonio Ciseri
until 1864.
The experience became a valuable calling card for Blanes, who became one of Uruguay's most sought-after portraiteurs. The 1871 outbreak of a
yellow fever
epidemic in
Buenos Aires
inspired his first renowned work, which he exhibited to acclaim in the recovering city. His 1872 portrait of the
Argentine War of Independence
hero, General
Jose de San Martin
(
The Review in
Rancagua
), was also a success in Buenos Aires, and Blanes was invited to
Chile
to display the historic depiction.
[1]
Works of Uruguayan national importance
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Returning to Uruguay, Blanes undertook a portrait of the "
Thirty-three Easterners
", members of a revolutionary vanguard whose insurrection against
Brazilian
authorities resulted in Uruguayan Independence, in 1828. The portrait's 1877 display was followed by Blanes' second stay in Florence, where he completed
The Battle of Sarandi
, a depiction of another milestone in Uruguay's nationhood. These works, and his bucolic portraits of life in his homeland did not garner the interest he expected in Italy, however, and the Blaneses returned to Montevideo in the early 1880s.
[1]
Blanes resumed his portrait work, which remained popular among the local gentry. Among the most notable was a portrait of President
Maximo Santos
, commissioned by friends of the ruler as a gift. The most well known from this later period, however, was
Artigas en la Ciudadela
, an homage to one of Uruguay's most respected early patriots,
Jose Gervasio Artigas
.
Later life and legacy
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This success was followed by the 1889 death of Blanes' wife, however, and he and his younger son, Nicanor, spent the next two years in
Rome
, where his elder son, Juan Luis, had settled.
He returned to Uruguay alone, and continued to create
historic
and
landscape art
. A few years later, Juan Luis lost his life in an accident and in 1899, Nicanor disappeared in
Pisa
. Blanes hurried to the Tuscan city in hopes of locating his son, and a friend from a previous visit made him a guest in her house. Searching for nearly two years, the 70-year-old Blanes died in Ms. Manetti's Via di Mezzo residence.
[1]
The city of Montevideo established the
Municipal Museum of Fine Arts
, and named it in his honor, in 1930; many of his best-known works are also displayed in the National Museum of Visual Arts. Washington D.C.'s
General Jose Gervasio Artigas
statue, based on Blanes' portrait, was cast in bronze in Uruguay during
World War II
as a gift to the
United States
.
References
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]
External links
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