MUSEO DE BELLAS ARTES JUAN MANUAL BLANES

Collection of paintings by Uruguayan and foreign artists, including those of two of the greatest Uruguayan painters: Juan Manuel Blanes and Pedro Figari. Blanes was inspired by the history of the country and the world of the gauchos to paint a fundamental work for the collective imagination of Uruguay. Born in 1830, at the time of the foundation of Uruguay, he quickly took his mission as painter of the country seriously. After training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, he returned to South America where he dedicated himself to depicting the history of Uruguay through immensely detailed and realistic paintings. One of his most famous works is displayed in the museum. It is the painting El Juramento de los Treinta y Tres Orientales (The Oath of the Thirty-Three Orientals), which depicts the moment when the revolutionaries of the Banda Oriental rose up against the Brazilian domination on the beach of La Agraciada, in the department of Soriano. In 1878, this painting was exhibited for two months during a great event in which thousands of Montevidians came to see it. As for Pedro Figari, a late painter and precursor of modern art in the subcontinent, he immortalized the ombúes and the countryside, as well as the colorful urban scenes of candombe. Before or after your visit, take a stroll through the museum's gardens. The horticulturist Pedro Margat introduced Japanese camellias that color the Montevideo winter mist.