He attended the course Ciências Histórico-Filosóficas at the Faculdade de Letras of the Universidade de Lisboa (1941-1944), and participated in the so-called “Lisbon Surrealist Group” (1947-1949) with, among others, Alexandre O’Neill, Mário Cesariny, António Pedro and João Moniz Pereira.

As a scholarship student of the French government (1959-1963), he graduated in Sociology of Art with the thesis L’art dans la société portugaise au XXe siècle, and got a PhD in History, with the thesis Une ville des Lumiéres: la Lisbonne de Pombal – under the supervision of the French art historian Pierre Francastel -, and then a PhD in Letters and Human Sciences (1969), with the research work entitled Le romantisme au Portugal.

He directed, with Fernando Lemos, the Galeria de Março (1952-1954), and curated several individual and group exhibitions, in galleries and museums in Portugal and abroad, including 40 Years of Portuguese Art (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 1981) and La Lisbonne de Pombal (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris, 1987).

Professor Emeritus by the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanos da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in which he founded the Department of History of Art (1976) and created the first national master’s degree in history of Art.

He was director of the Cultural Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris (1983-1989), and president of the Institute of Culture and Portuguese Language (1976-1980) and of the National Centre of Culture (1974-1978). 

Author of a vast published bibliography (books, texts in exhibition catalogues and articles in newspapers and magazines), with reference, in the field of Art History, to the works A arte em Portugal no século XIX (1st edition, 1967) and A arte em Portugal no século XX (1st edition, 1974). He has collaborated with numerous Portuguese and foreign newspapers and magazines, including: Seara Nova (1948-1959), Colóquio. Artes of which he was director (1971-1996), Art d’aujourd’hui (1960-1967), Cahiers du cinema (1960-1967), Diário de Lisboa, Diário de notícias, Jornal de letras and Cadernos do meio-dia.

He was a member and, later, president (1985-1988) of the Portuguese Section of the International Association of Art Critics, having been responsible for its restructuring (1967-1969), following the I Congress of Portuguese Art Critics (1967). Among other positions he occupied, José Augusto França was a member of the National Academy of Fine Arts (president between 1976-7199), honorary member of the International Art History Committee (Paris) and the French Federation of Film Critics and served on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (2001-2005).

In 1992, José Augusto França donated part of his bibliographical collection to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation where, in 2012, the IV Congress of Portuguese Art History was organized in his homage.

Distinguished with the ‘Life and Work of a National Author Award’ (Portuguese Society of Authors, 2014), he has received several honorary distinctions, among which are the Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (1991), Grand Cross of the Order of Public Instruction (1992), the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (2006) and the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada (posthumously, 2021) and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (France).

José Augusto França was born in Tomar, Portugal (1922) and died in Jarzé Villages, France (2021).