José Simões de Almeida (sobrinho) was born in Figueiró dos Vinhos in the Leiria District of Portugal on June 17, 1880.

After finishing the course, he obtained a scholarship to study in Paris, where he stayed between 1904 and 1907, receiving lessons from Raoul Verlet and Jean-Paul Laurens.

One of his first works was a statue of Bento de Góis, for the explorer's home town of Vila Franca do Campo on São Miguel Island in the Azores, which was inaugurated in 1906.

Simões de Almeida also offered a statue of Prince Henry the Navigator to São Miguel in 1932, to commemorate the 5th centenary of the discovery of the Azores.

Other works at São Bento Palace include allegories of the Constitution and Justice and the tympanum at the façade of the building.