After graduation, Pousão travelled to France with fellow student José Júlio de Souza Pinto and studied at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris under Adolphe Yvon and Alexandre Cabanel.

[1] But he suffered from tuberculosis, and under his doctor's advice left Paris for Italy, hoping that the warmer climate might relieve his condition.

Pousão belonged to the naturalist generation, like António Silva Porto and João Marques de Oliveira, though his work is more related than theirs to impressionism.

This approach appears in the abstract plains of colour and textures of his 1882 paintings Miragem and Fachada de Porta Soterrada.

The best collection of his work is at the National Museum Soares dos Reis, in Porto, which houses Paisagem - Saint-Sauves [pt] (Landscape, St Sauves) ; The model resting [pt] ; Senhora Vestida de Negro (Lady in Black) ; Autoretrato ; Un patio ; Escadas de um pardieiro (Stairs to a barn), Roma ; Ramada e muro com vasos (Trellis and vases on a low wall) and Rapariga deitada no tronco de uma árvore (Girl lying on a tree trunk), 1883.