Founded in 1930, the original building was acquired by the city government and expanded as a museum. Since then, it has been part of the Montevideo Municipal Museum System. The Juan Manuel Blanes Museum was founded in 1930, coinciding with the centenary of Uruguay's independence. It bears the name of the national painter Juan Manuel Blanes, on the centenary of his birth. The original building was acquired and expanded as a museum.

Its initial conception was strongly characterized by an architecture, a museum model and a collection of the 19th century. Since 1940, it began to receive the works awarded in the Municipal Salon, opening itself to contemporary art and developing its current collection. Since 1996, the creation of an archive of national artists has been part of the museum's cultural policy. The architectural nobility of the building and the historical and environmental importance of the urban space in which it is located constitute a cultural value that is added to the artistic collection of the museum, thus proposing the integration and mutual enrichment of both patrimonial areas. Located in the Prado of Montevideo, the museum participates in the most primitive and cultivated green heritage of the city, which extends over the basin of the Miguelete stream.