His mother was Donna Maria Augusta do Ó Carvalho Prostes and his brother the painter Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro.

He married Elvira Ferreira de Almeida in 1866, and the following year, his son Manuel Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro was born.

In 1881, he published the illustrated reportage No Lazareto de Lisboa ("The Lazaretto of Lisbon") that included personal thoughts and anecdotes (not unlike a Joe Sacco or Guy Delisle chronicle), and is considered an early example of autobiographical comics.

[5] In 1875, Bordalo Pinheiro created the cartoon character Zé Povinho (literal translation: "Joe Little People"), a Portuguese everyman, portrayed as a poor peasant.

He developed pieces of great technical, artistic and creative quality, painted tiles (azulejos), panels, pots, table centerpieces, vase busts, fountain basins, pitchers, plates, perfume bottles, vases and gigantic animals, etc., which in his hands quickly acquired an original character.