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