The Soares dos Reis National Museum has its origins in the Museum of Paintings and Prints and other Fine Arts objects, created in 1833 by King Pedro IV of Portugal. Known as the Museu Portuense, it was housed in the now defunct Convento de Santo António da Cidade. In 1839 it passed to the direction of the Academia Portuense de Belas Artes, which organised a series of exhibitions that honoured notable artists such as Soares dos Reis, Silva Porto, Marques de Oliveira and Henrique Pousão, in successive generations of masters and disciples.

With the proclamation of the Republic, it was renamed the Soares dos Reis Museum in memory of one of the most outstanding names in Portuguese art. In 1932 it became the National Museum, a period marked by a significant reorganisation by Vasco Valente, incorporating objects from the Episcopal Palace of Porto (Mitra) and the Industrial Museum, as well as the deposit of collections from the now defunct Municipal Museum.

This was followed by the installation of the Museum in the Carrancas Palace where, as part of the 1940 National Commemorations, the exhibition The Work of Soares dos Reis was inaugurated. The Portuguese Institute of Museums marked the remodelling of the Soares dos Reis National Museum in 2001 with an architectural project by the studio of Fernando Távora, giving it new spaces for reserves, temporary exhibitions, an auditorium and an education service.