The original catalogue was created some twenty years ago but has now been substantially revised and updated.
We have so far recorded over 550 of Susanna's sketches and paintings almost all created between 1891 and her death in 1927. The great majority depict people, animals and rural scenes in northern Portugal. She must have visited the London Galleries where she became interested in copying other works, in particular that of J.M.W. Turner. There are five examples extant, one of which is a large-scale copy of Turner's Agrippina arriving at Rome with the ashes of Germanicus. She also extended her skills to cover portraiture with a fine portrait of her sister Kate. This latter gives the impression that the various portraits which appear in her paintings are true to life. Occasionally she would write the name of a place on the back; sometimes she would sign a painting on the right or left, either with S.R.D. or S R Dockery. Many of the paintings in the possession of her family are preliminary sketches and unfinished paintings and it is assumed that most of her finer works were sold near her home in Surrey or at her various exhibitions, or in Portugal and within the English Community of Portugal. Most of the paintings that we know of range in size from a large postcard to approximately A3 size, however some examples are considerable larger. The price differences in the Dunthorne catalogue probably represent this range in sizes of her paintings.
Susanna was born in the Roope family home the Quinta Amarela at Largo da Aguardente on 13th February 1856, (Different Worlds by Jonathan Rawes, 2024, p.121), now known as Jardim de Marquês, in Oporto. It is interesting to note that the square is named after the Marquês do Pombal. The Taylor quinta high above Pinhao in the Douro Valley, where Susanna stayed and painted some of her paintings, is called The Pombal, at Eira Velha, Pinhao.
Extracted from the website: https://portosecretspots.com.
Susanna Roope was married in Oporto on 21st May 1878 to Alfred Victor Dockery, previously US Consul at Oporto but then based at the US Consulate in Leeds, England. She moved to Leeds where their first child Roderick was born in 1879, followed by their second and third children George and Susanna in 1884. In 1885 however Victor resigned his consulship and they moved to Carthage in Richmond County, North Carolina, fairly close to Victor's family home. In 1891 Susanna parted from Victor sailing for England with the children. There is no evidence of her painting while she was with her husband, either in Leeds or during the six years she lived in America. She settled with her mother Elizabeth Roope in a cottage at Witley in Surrey. Almost immediately it seems she started associating with other artists in the area and it appears that to sustain herself financially she started painting professionally. Jonathan Rawes' book Different Worlds 2024 p.315 etc. throws much light on Susanna's life and world.
Susanna was obviously a talented artist from early on, as evidenced by her painting of Mont Blanc back in 1875 when she was aged 19. We know of two or three of her paintings that are probably local to Witley, however, for her new career Susanna's chosen subject was rural life in northern Portugal. This suggests that she must have already been familiar with her chosen subject. This would have entailed much sailing back and forth to Portugal and staying with family etc. A fairly recent railway network had been established from Lisbon to the northern frontier with Spain plus a spur up the Douro Valley, which lessoned the time spent with horse, carriage and donkey. Her main residence however appears to have been with her mother in the cottage at Witley. In 1894 five of Susanna's paintings appeared in an exhibition arranged by The Haslemere Society of Artists (see under Exhibitions).
There was another exhibition at Dunthorne's Gallery in London in 1897 with 76 of Susanna's paintings (see under exhibitions). Her output was astonishing since she had three young children, only started painting professionally in 1891 and her subject matter was in another country. At the turn of the century Susanna and her larger Roope family stayed at Viana de Castelo on the border of the Minho. Her sister Elsie Standring left a diary that recorded this event (see elsewhere on this site). It writes of much walking, horse riding and also visiting Afife, giving us a lovely window into her world. This was certainly not her first visit to the north as several of her paintings in the exhibition of 1897 were of scenes in the Minho. She had obviously fallen in love with Afife as at some stage, probably after her mother died on 10th February 1902, she rented a cottage in Afife. Although it cannot at present be proved, many of her sketches and paintings were probably of scenes in and around Afife.
By 1914 Susanna was living in Lavadores where she stayed until the end of her life although visiting Afife upon occasion. She died on 20th September 1927 at the Frank Yeatman's house Quinta da Boeira in Vila Nova de Gaia. Her sister Kate had married Arthur Dagge who became the manager for Frank Yeatman of the Taylor Estate at Eira Velha above Pinhao.
Susanna's first dated painting that we have record of was in 1875 when she was in Switzerland, aged 19, but this was probably a one off and not intended for sale. We are hampered with not being able to locate many of her paintings and more importantly not being able to date them so cannot place her whereabouts at a given time. By studying the catalogue however we can give some structure to her movements in Portugal.
- Susanna exhibited in Lisbon and painted at least three paintings in the vicinity: the Royal Palace at Sintra and the Belém Tower on the coast to the west of Lisbon.
- Susanna is known to have visited the Serra do Bussaco to the north of Coimbra where she painted a fountain and shrine at the convento de Santo Cruz.
- The next identified location is on the coast at Espinho, some miles south of Lavadores. Espinho is named as the location of a vibrant sardine industry traditional sardine boats are lying on the beach. The place was a favoured resort for the English community and a golf course was established here in 1890. It was later called the Oporto Golf Course. The club even hosted the 'Skeffington Cup, the oldest golf competition in the world, inaugurated in 1891 and played annually'. We know of a number of paintings relating to sardine boats and one of Susanna's paintings in 1897 was titled 'The Last Hole, Espinhoe.
- Lavadores figures quite prominently in the Catalogue but apart from her paintings of 'Gun Rock' they have been difficult to locate - Lavadores has changed significantly since then.
- Vila Nova de Gaia is the next port-of-call which would have caught Susanna's attention as it was the home of family. A number of her paintings are of Oporto from the south bank of the Douro. There are also three paintings of boys sitting on the quayside, one probably dating to 1894 or earlier.
- Oporto, being her home of course attracted her attention but there are not as many as one might think, perhaps because it is a city rather than the countryside; and it is the countryside that attracted her, particularly the then rusticity of northern Portugal.
- There are a number of paintings of vineyards in the Douro Valley and of the river itself and also of the railway bridge from vantage point of Taylor Estate at Eira Velha above Pinhao.
- There is one painting of a town to the east of Pinhao called Vila Flor.
- There are at least two of her paintings that have been identified as from Brage and Barcelos plus Vila Flor, a town further to the east. These are places where she possibly stayed on single occasions.
- Further up the coast is Viana do Castelo on the northern bank of the Lima is the next venue where we know Susanna stayed. She was particularly interested in the ruined convent outside Viana.
- The next on our list is Afife. Many of Susanna's known sketches and paintings were probably produced in and around Afife and the convent at Cabanas.
- Ancora where at least painting is known.
- Caminha on the border with Spain is represented by several of her paintings.
- An educated guess can be made of the location of many of Susanna's unplaced paintings but without proof they have been lodged in sub-divisions titled 'unknown'.
The catalogue has been arranged in categories and then in sub-divisions such as: Home Duries, Working from home, working in the fields, dealing with livestock, selling produce, leisure and pastimes, miscellaneous, ranging from the south around Lisbon to the Minho in the north of Portugal. Upon studying the catalogue, it has been possible to get some idea of her perambulations in Portugal. Many of Susanna's paintings of course cross some of these artificial boundaries.
Julian Rawes, Harvington, 2025.
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