Eduardo Batarda was born in 1943 in Coimbra, Portugal, where he attended medical school at the local University from 1960 to 1963 – when he successfully applied to the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. He graduated from its two successive painting courses in 1967 and 1968. He served as a drafted officer in the Portuguese army (artillery) from 1968 to 1971 – when he started a three-year post-graduation at the Royal College of Art, London, attending the School of Painting of its Faculty of Fine Art (as it was at the time). He graduated in 1974 (MaRCA). At the RCA, he was awarded the Sir Alan Lane and John Minton prizes. From 1976 to 2008 he taught at the Porto School of Fine Arts. He wrote regularly about art and art exhibitions for a Portuguese weekly (during c. twelve months in 1974-75).

He first took part in a group show, the first of many, in 1966. His first one-man show took place in 1968, in Lisbon. He has had solo exhibitions on a regular basis, mainly in Lisbon and Porto.

His most recent one-man shows were: Bicos [Spikes], 2010, (Lisbon), Thumbnails and Models, 1, 2013 (Lisbon), and Thumbnails and Models, 2, 2013 (Porto), Misquoteros (Lisbon, MAAT Museum, 2016-17); his Image Descriptions (Porto, 2017), were shown together with a second presentation of the 30-piece Misquoteros.

There have been a few anthological and retrospective exhibitions of his work: in 1975, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (a large overview of his work at the RCA, as a scholar of the foundation); in 1998, at the Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (Eduardo Batarda: Painting, 1965-1998); in 2009, at the Manuel de Brito Art Centre, Algés, Oeiras [Lisbon] (Eduardo Batarda in the CAMB Collection); in 2011, at the Serralves Museum, Porto (Eduardo Batarda: Outra Vez Não) [Not Again].