Portuguese, he arrived in Brazil in 1928, at the age of 22. He was a carpenter like his father and studied geometric drawing at the Portuguese Literary Lyceum, having also taken some courses at the School of Arts and Crafts.
In 1931 he joined the Bernadelli Group (a group created in opposition to the teaching at the National School of Fine Arts).
Between 1933 and 1943 he worked as a furniture designer at the company Laubissh & Hirth.
He became known in 1942 when he received an order for furniture for the residence of Francisco Inácio Peixoto (a modernist poet, writer, farmer, and industrialist who financed the most important cultural events in Cataguases-MG, launching his hometown onto the scene of Modern Architecture in Brazil in the 1940s), designed by Oscar Niemeyer and with landscaping by Burle Marx.
He used various materials such as straw weaving, reminiscent of basketry and indigenous weaving, natural fibers, among others. He saw the need to adapt the furniture to our tropical climate.
His first independent production was the Light Armchair (1942).
Crafted from ivory wood, with a dark version in imbuia wood, and upholstered in fabric printed by Fayga Ostrower. According to Tenreiro, this armchair was created following "a principle that I felt should be followed by modern Brazilian furniture: lightness. Lightness that has nothing to do with weight itself, but with functionality in the space." - Tenreiro, Bolsa de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, Icatu.
In 1943 he founded the company Langenbach & Tenreiro. During the 1940s, he also dedicated himself to portrait painting.
landscape and still life.