He studied Law between 1908 and 1913, receiving a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Coimbra, and a degree in Historical-Geographical Sciences in 1914 and 1915 at the Faculty of Letters of the same university, studying under António Garcia Ribeiro de Vasconcelos and, even at that early stage, organising tours for students to visit the artistic heritage of the Coimbra area.
There he studied under António Augusto Gonçalves, who had played an important role in the restoration of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra.
[1] In 1924, Couto moved to Lisbon, where he taught at the Liceu Pedro Nunes, an important high school with many distinguished alumni.
The transfer enabled him to take up an invitation by the director of the MNAA, José de Figueiredo, to work there on an unpaid part-time basis, which he did between 1924 and 1928.
[1] In 1930 Couto was appointed curator at the new Palácio dos Condes de Castro Guimarães museum in Cascais but returned to the MNAA in 1932, where, after the death of Figueiredo in 1938, he became the director, a position he was to occupy until 1962.