He was born in Vila Viçosa in the 1st of January, 1859. His parents were Augusto Nunes Pousão, graduate in Law, and Maria Teresa Alves de Araújo. Among his family ancestors there were some painters: his maternal grandparent, Caetano Alves de Araújo, the author of an oil on canvas of the Holy Sacrament chapel in the church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Vila Viçosa, called Instituição do Santíssimo Sacramento (Institution of the Holy Sacrament), and his paternal great-grandparent whose most important works can be seen at the S. Paulo da Serra de Ossa Convent, in Redondo. In 1863 he moves with his parents to Elvas where he attends the elementary school. In 1869, one of his drawings, Retrato da Prima (Portrait of my cousin) already reveals the promising traces of a potential artist. In 1871, Pousão and his parents move to Barcelos, where they stay for a few months, and then to Oporto.

 In 1872, with 13 years old, he starts his studies at the Fine Arts Academy in Oporto, after the learning with the painter António José da Costa.
 In 1873, he gets his first artistic prizes, in the subject of Historical Drawing. In 1880 he finishes his painting course and in that same year he gets a scholarship abroad. He travels to Paris, for a year, passing through Madrid and the Prado Museum. In Paris, during the year of 1881, he studies in the Yvon and Cabanel’s painting workshops. He works to exhaustion and gets sick with a strong cold which degenerates in tuberculosis. Looking for a better climate to his physical recovering he goes to Puy-de-Dome, Marsella and finally to Italy where, after Turin and Pisa, he stays in Rome. 

 In the summer of 1882, he travels to the Capri Island where, fascinated by the Mediterranean light, paints his best works, several landscapes and the famous oil on canvas Casa das Persianas Azuis (The House of the Blue Jalousies).
 At the end of the summer of 1883 he returns to Portugal along the Mediterranean coast and in 15 September e arrives in Vila Viçosa.

 In 1884, he paints his last works. Aspecto da Casa do primo Matroco (Detail of Cousin Moroco’s House), where he died, Rosas num Copo (Roses in a Glass), which he painted to offer his doctor, Dr. Couto Jardim, and others with floral motives, to be offered to his cousin Matroco.

 Between 20 and 27 of March of 1884, Henrique Pousão dies from pulmonary tuberculosis.