José Giulio de Souza Pinto was taught by Soares dos Reis at the Escuola Superior de Belas-Artes in Oporto. He settled in Paris, where he became the pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret and Bastien Lepage. He was also attracted to the art of Jules Breton and the American Ridgway-Knight.
A landscape artist of the first generation of Portuguese naturalist painters, he favoured country scenes and representation of French peasants' everyday life. Engraving and other means of reproduction have popularised his paintings, which always enjoyed great success at the Salon de Paris each year.
José Giulio de Souza obtained an honourable mention in 1883 and a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Oporto in 1887, a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889, and the Grand Prix for painting in Oporto. He received the Légion d'Honneur in 1895. He was a member of the Jury for the hors concours section at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, and became a member of the Academia Nacional Belas Artes in Lisbon.
Museum and Gallery Holdings
Amiens (Mus. de Picardie): Head of an Old Man
Lisbon (Mus. do Chiado): Summer; Afternoon Effect
Melbourne: In the Fields
Monte Carlo: Child in the Wood
Nice (MBA Jules-Chéret): By the Fire
Paris (Mus. d'Orsay): Harvesting Potatoes
Rio de Janeiro: Rendez-Vous
Viseu (Mus. de Grão Vasco): In Brittany