SRDockery.me.uk:exhibitions

This is an ongoing study of the life of Susanna Roope Dockery and her paintings.

Susanna was born in the Roope family home, the Quinta Amarela at Largo da Aguardente on 13th February 1856, now known as Jardim de Marquês, in Oporto. She was the fourth child of Cabel (1823-1880) and Elizabeth (1828-1902) Roope. Cabel Roope, was a son of another Cabel Roope, a member of a prominent family long settled in the Dartmouth area of South Devon. They had become part of the small British community in Oporto. Her mother Elizabeth Whitaker was from a long-established family in Bampton, Oxfordshire.

Extracted from the website: https://portosecretspots.com.
Susanna Roope grew up in Oporto and was married in Oporto on 21st May 1878 to Alfred Victor Dockery, previously US Consul at Oporto, but subsequently based at the US Consulate in Leeds, England. She moved to Leeds where their first child Roderick was born in 1879, followed by twins George and May in 1883. 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 little 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 and we assumed this was her home for the next ten years or so until her mother passed away in 1903. Back to 1891, she started associating with other artists in the area of Haslemere, such as Claude Hayes R.I., the son of Edwin Hayes, the marine painter and member of of the Royal Hibernian Academy and it appears to sustain herself financially, she started painting professionally. At this stage it is worth mentioning a biography of Susanna by Jonathan Rawes (Different Worlds 2024).

Susanna with Roderick in 1879.
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 three of four of her paintings that are probably local to Witley, however, for her new career Susanna's chose rural life in northern Portugal. This suggests that she must have already been familiar with her chosen subject and would have entailed much sailing back and forth to Portugal. A fairly recent railway network had been established from Lisbon to the northern frontier with Spain plus a spur up the Douro Valley, otherwise travel was by horse, carriage and donkey. Her main residence however appears to have been with her mother in Stoke and Witley in Surrey. In 1901 census, however Susanna was recorded as living 212 Crawley Road, Stoke in Surrey with her mother Elizabeth widow, her brother Frederick retired Royal Navy Commander, Kate her sister and six servants. She was described as an artist.

Exhibitions
Between 1894 and 1909 we know of a number of exhibitions of her work, one in Haslemere, several in London and two in Lisbon. During these exhibitions it is assumed she would have appeared in person. 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. Her output was astonishing and prolific since she had three young children, had only started painting professionally in 1891 and her subject matter was in another country. In 1899 she held an exhibition Costumes of Minho and Douro watercolours in Lisbon when the Queen of Portugal purchased two of her paintings.

In 1901 census, however Susanna was recorded as living 212 Crawley Road, Stoke in Surrey with her mother Elizabeth widow, her brother Frederick retired Royal Navy Commander, Kate her sister and six servants. She was described as an artist.
At the turn of the century Susanna and her larger Roope family stayed at Viana do Castelo on the border of the Minho. Her niece Elsie Standring left a detailed diary that recorded this event (see elsewhere on this site). It writes of much walking, horse riding and also visiting Afife and gives 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, possibly after her mother died on 10th February 1902, she rented a cottage in Afife. Many of her sketches and paintings are of harvesting and winnowing and rural life around Afife and were probably painted during this time. Her last known exhibition was in 1909 when she exhibited in Lisbon, presumably as a follow on from the publication of Portugal, its Land and People by W.H. Koebel, containing 21 of her paintings, where we get the full impact of her finished works.
Another favoured spot was above Pinhão on the upper reaches of the Douro. In 1897' this had become the home of her sister Catherine Roope (1869-1963), 'Kate' had married Arthur Dagge. Arthur became the manager of the newly acquired estate at Eira Velha above Pinhão. She probably stayed at Eira Vehla on a number of occasions and while there painted prolifically; scenes of mostly grape harvesting and assorted processes which went into the production of port wine. She clearly used this home as a base, not only for painting, but for sightseeing etc.
By 1914 when Susanna was 60, she moved down to Lavadores where she appeared to have stayed until the end of her life, although possibly visiting Afife and presumably Eira Vehla.

Susanna later in life.
Most of Susanna's paintings and sketches were not located or dated. The identification of the scenes of her paintings after so much time has passed has proved difficult, but the process of that identification has helped us to build up a picture of her bases and her travels. The location of these scenes extend from the Lisbon area all the way up to Caminha on the border with Spain. Because of the factual quality of her paintings and their subjects, we have made much progress into tracking her movements.

Where Susanna lived and where she visited in Portugal.

This is an attempt to record Susanna's movements in Portugal, after she had separated from her husband Victor Dockery - in essence, where she painted.
Lisbon
Susanna exhibited in Lisbon in 1899 and 1909 and painted at least three paintings in the vicinity of the Royal Palace at Sintra and the Belém Tower on the coast to the west of Lisbon. There is no record of her staying in the area for any length of time and probably stayed with extended members of her family.

Serre do Bussaco
Situated To the north of Coimbra, she visited this town on at least one occasion where she painted a fountain and shrine in the convento de Santo Cruz.

Espinho
The next identified location is on the coast at Espinho, some miles south of Lavadores. Espinho was known as the location of a vibrant sardine industry where many traditional sardine boats are seen lying on the beach. The place was a favoured resort for the English community and a golf course was established here in 1890, later being 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. We have no knowledge of her actually living here but she must have stayed or visited on a number of occasions. Her base may have been from her cottage in Lavadores.

Lavadores
Susanna lived in a cottage at Lavadores on the Atlantic coast just south the of estuary of the Douro. She had moved here in 1914 and the area features prominently in her paintings. Apart from 'Gun Rock' however, they have been difficult to locate - Lavadores has been developed heavily in modern times and the area has changed beyond recognition.

Vila Nova de Gaia
As we travel north, this place is the next port-of-call, which is perched on the south bank of the Douro opposite to Oporto. It would have caught Susanna's attention as at some stage it was a Roope family home, a base for the great port lodges. 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
This was her home town, the place of her birth, and of course it attracted her attention, There are paintings of the river front and steep streets, but there are not as many as one might think. There is at least one scene painted in the garden of the Rawes family situated in the northern suburbs of the city on the junction of Rua de Felizardo de Lima and Rua Direita das Campinas. Susanna's daughter May had married Prescott Rawes in 1913, the grandfather of Jonathan Rawes and myself. We rediscovered the house on a visit in 2025. It is a large house with an enclosed garden. Susanna would have stayed here when visiting her daughter. But it was the rusticity and light of northern Portugal that really attracted her.

The Rawes House in Campinas, Oporto.

The Douro and Eira Vehla
There are many of Susanna's scenes painted of the Douro from the Estuary and Oporto up river to Pinhão and beyond; of river craft and the port wine making process, the river as it wends its way through ever steaper terrain to the quintas and vineyard gracing the terraces above. Susanna's port-of-call here was the quinta Eira Vehla set high up above the Douro and overlooking Pinhão. The quinta was one of Susanna's chief bases for living and painting and she probably stayed here on a number of occasions. It must have become her second if not her first home for a while after leaving England to settle back in Portugal.
The quinta was old and its name literary means old threshing floor. The first note we have is from 1809 when from that time the Roope's had bought wine from the quinta. in 1893 However Cabel Roope purchased the freehold of the property under the umbrella of his company Hunt, Roope & Co., possibly as a wedding gift for Kate his daughter and Arthur Dagge (1855-1927). Whatever the arrangement, Arthur Dagge became the manager of the Eira Vehla estate and they lived there for many years. The property ownership was transferred to Arthur in 1907.

Unfortunately, we have no obvious images of the house, but various parts of the house may appear in one or two of Susanna's paintings.
The property had not been a full, autonomous quinta like: Quinta de Vargellas, Quinta de Terra Feita, Quinta de Roeda, Quinta do Junco. Instead, Eira Velha was an outlying farm / dependency belonging to the Taylor Fladgate estate network in the Pinhão - Vale de Mendiz area. In the 19th century, large Port houses often had: a main quinta plus several agricultural units (casais, eiras, pombais, small houses, used for storage, workers’ lodgings, threshing, and vineyard support. Eira Velha was one of these support properties. This explains why it had a manager, in this case Arthur Dagge; it had a house suitable for family stays; it had an eira (threshing floor) and it had a pombal (dovecote), but it was not registered as a full quinta in the Douro land books.
In the 1880s–1890s, the road system around Pinhão was being improved. This did not include the lengthy mule track or bridle-path that wound its way up from the valley floor to Eira Vehla and beyond. There is a delightful story concerning the lengthy bridle-path that climbed up from the Douro to Eira Vehla:-
"The beautiful quinta of Eira Velha, perched upon a shoulder of the hills overlooking the Pinhão valley, could for many years only be approached by the roughest of bridle-paths. Arthur Dagge had long wished to build up to the house from the main highway in the valley, but his requests were invariably turned down by the Juiz dos Orfãos in view of the fact that the young Cabel Roope was both a minor and an orphan (Cabel Roope had died by then). Dagge at last took desperate measures. He built the road and then invited the learned judge - who came from far afield - to visit the quinta with his wife. The two arrived at Pinhão one dark evening, and were led up the bridle-path on donkeys, the donkey-boys having been instructed to make the journey as uncomfortable and frightening as possible. Next morning, when the time came for the judge and his wife to leave. a taxi was waiting to drive them down to the train. Not a word was said, either then or ever again, upon the subject of the road."

Painting srd311 depicts the new road with her title "New Road at Eira Vehla". Unfortunately a date is not given but it is assumed to have been after Arthur Dagge purchased the property in 1907. The alignment is still used today.
At Eira Vehla Susanna spent much time with her easel. The house had a terrace or platform (the old threshing floor), which extended out from the hillside. It was a magnificent vantage point with sweeping views across the Douro Valley. To the right and possibly in view from the house is a 'pombal' (dovecote). Pombals were a feature in this area and the pombal at Eira Vehla was a prominent one; Susanna depicted in at least two of her paintings. In Portuguese the term means dovecote.
The quinta was not just a house, a place to live, it was a working farm and a short distance away down the road on the outside of a bend in the road was the adega (farm buildings), the working part of the quinta, where no doubt the buildings housing the presses, grape harvesting machinery etc. were positioned. It is now realised that many if not all of Susanna's depictions of the wine producing process set in inside a building or buildings, would have been the setting for Susanna's paintings.
The wine-making process at Eira Vehla.
The setting is unmistakable - the stone walls, timber beams, and enclosed light of the adega are entirely consistent with Eira Velha, where Susanna stayed with Kate and Arthur Dagge. The baskets of grapes around the lagar confirm that this scene follows directly from the filling stage depicted in paintings srd012 and srd085.

The above painting, published in Portugal: Its Land and People, in 1909, is one of Susanna’s most vivid and character‑rich depictions of pressing the grapes inside the lagar (pisar uvas). The deep burgundy‑red must (freshly crushed grape juice containing skins, seeds and stems), forms the base of the composition, but the true brilliance of the painting lies in the depiction of the men themselves, each caught in a different gesture, as if she had pressed the shutter of a camera - a moment of life frozen in time, Susanna is not painting anonymous workers, she is painting individuals: Two men are smoking, relaxed, utterly at ease, their pipes or cigarettes held casually as they tread, their presence gives the scene a social, almost convivial atmosphere; a man is holding what is probably a banjo, adding the likelihood of music to the scene; a man with his hand behind him, is possibly dancing, his posture is light, almost playful, suggesting a rhythmic movement - Douro workers traditionally sang and moved in coordinated steps - and Susanna may be capturing a moment of that rhythm; Another man is holding his hands up - perhaps gesturing to a companion, perhaps caught mid‑conversation, perhaps reacting to Susanna herself; and then there is the man looking directly at Susanna - this is the most extraordinary detail, he meets her gaze with complete immediacy, as if posing for a photograph. His expression is alert, curious, and slightly amused. This single glance anchors the entire painting in lived reality.
Why this painting matters is because it is not simply a record of treading grapes, it is a record of human presence, movement, humour, and labour. Susanna captures the camaraderie of the adega - men working, talking, smoking, gesturing, laughing, and acknowledging her presence. It is one of her most remarkable achievements: a moment of Douro life preserved with photographic immediacy, a record of times past and now lost to us.
We finish off with the finished process, the work is done and the product is ready for testing. In the meditative painting below is a lone man sitting by the lager holding what appears to be a tester.

The man appears to be young, his clothing and confident handling of the tester imply someone with responsibility in the adega, and it is entirely possible that Susanna has painted her brother-in-law Arthur Dagge, Manager of the Eira Velha. Arthur Dagge was in possession of Eira Vehla until he died in 1927 when he is believed to have left it to his wife's nephew Noel Cabel Roope.

Vila Flor
There is one painting of the town to the east of Pinhão, which she must have visited.

Brage & Barcelos
There are at least two of her paintings which have been identified as from Brage and Barcelos. These are places where she possibly stayed on single occasions.

Viana do Castelo
Further up the coast is Viana do Castelo on the northern bank of the Lima is the next venue where we know Susanna visited on more than one occasion, certainly in 1900. She was particularly interested in the ruined convent outside Viana.

Afife
Our next place of interest is the village of Afife. Susanna rented a cottage. It is situated on the left-hand side the main road as one approaches the settlement, sandwiched between the road and the railway line. Many of Susanna's sketches and paintings were produced in and around Afife and the convent at Cabanas, which is situated just above Afife. It is not known when she first visited Afife but it would have been in the 1890s.

Susanna's house in Afife.
This section is yet to be written.

Ancora
is just north of Afife and at least one painting is known.

Caminha
Situated on the border with Spain and the estuary of Rio Minho and is represented by several of her paintings.

Susanna Roope Dockery died on 20th September 1927 at Frank Yeatman's house Quinta da Boeira in Vila Nova de Gaia and was buried in the English Cemetery in Oporto.
Julian Rawes, Crooked Walls, Harvington, 2026.

This is an ongoing study of the life of Susanna Roope Dockery and her paintings.
Susanna was born in the Roope family home, the Quinta Amarela at Largo da Aguardente on 13th February 1856, now known as Jardim de Marquês, in Oporto. She was the fourth child of Cabel (1823-1880) and Elizabeth (1828-1902) Roope. Cabel Roope, was a son of another Cabel Roope, a member of a prominent family long settled in the Dartmouth area of South Devon. They had become part of the small British community in Oporto. Her mother Elizabeth Whitaker was from a long-established family in Bampton, Oxfordshire. Extracted from the website: https://portosecretspots.com. Susanna Roope grew up in Oporto and was married in Oporto on 21st May 1878 to Alfred Victor Dockery, previously US Consul at Oporto, but subsequently based at the US Consulate in Leeds, England. She moved to Leeds where their first child Roderick was born in 1879, followed by twins George and May in 1883. 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 little 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 and we assumed this was her home for the next ten years or so until her mother passed away in 1903. Back to 1891, she started associating with other artists in the area of Haslemere, such as Claude Hayes R.I., the son of Edwin Hayes, the marine painter and member of of the Royal Hibernian Academy and it appears to sustain herself financially, she started painting professionally. At this stage it is worth mentioning a biography of Susanna by Jonathan Rawes (Different Worlds 2024). Susanna with Roderick in 1879. 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 three of four of her paintings that are probably local to Witley, however, for her new career Susanna's chose rural life in northern Portugal. This suggests that she must have already been familiar with her chosen subject and would have entailed much sailing back and forth to Portugal. A fairly recent railway network had been established from Lisbon to the northern frontier with Spain plus a spur up the Douro Valley, otherwise travel was by horse, carriage and donkey. Her main residence however appears to have been with her mother in Stoke and Witley in Surrey. In 1901 census, however Susanna was recorded as living 212 Crawley Road, Stoke in Surrey with her mother Elizabeth widow, her brother Frederick retired Royal Navy Commander, Kate her sister and six servants. She was described as an artist. Exhibitions Between 1894 and 1909 we know of a number of exhibitions of her work, one in Haslemere, several in London and two in Lisbon. During these exhibitions it is assumed she would have appeared in person. 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. Her output was astonishing and prolific since she had three young children, had only started painting professionally in 1891 and her subject matter was in another country. In 1899 she held an exhibition Costumes of Minho and Douro watercolours in Lisbon when the Queen of Portugal purchased two of her paintings. In 1901 census, however Susanna was recorded as living 212 Crawley Road, Stoke in Surrey with her mother Elizabeth widow, her brother Frederick retired Royal Navy Commander, Kate her sister and six servants. She was described as an artist. At the turn of the century Susanna and her larger Roope family stayed at Viana do Castelo on the border of the Minho. Her niece Elsie Standring left a detailed diary that recorded this event (see elsewhere on this site). It writes of much walking, horse riding and also visiting Afife and gives 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, possibly after her mother died on 10th February 1902, she rented a cottage in Afife. Many of her sketches and paintings are of harvesting and winnowing and rural life around Afife and were probably painted during this time. Her last known exhibition was in 1909 when she exhibited in Lisbon, presumably as a follow on from the publication of Portugal, its Land and People by W.H. Koebel, containing 21 of her paintings, where we get the full impact of her finished works. Another favoured spot was above Pinhão on the upper reaches of the Douro. In 1897' this had become the home of her sister Catherine Roope (1869-1963), 'Kate' had married Arthur Dagge. Arthur became the manager of the newly acquired estate at Eira Velha above Pinhão. She probably stayed at Eira Vehla on a number of occasions and while there painted prolifically; scenes of mostly grape harvesting and assorted processes which went into the production of port wine. She clearly used this home as a base, not only for painting, but for sightseeing etc. By 1914 when Susanna was 60, she moved down to Lavadores where she appeared to have stayed until the end of her life, although possibly visiting Afife and presumably Eira Vehla. Susanna later in life. Most of Susanna's paintings and sketches were not located or dated. The identification of the scenes of her paintings after so much time has passed has proved difficult, but the process of that identification has helped us to build up a picture of her bases and her travels. The location of these scenes extend from the Lisbon area all the way up to Caminha on the border with Spain. Because of the factual quality of her paintings and their subjects, we have made much progress into tracking her movements.
Where Susanna lived and where she visited in Portugal.
This is an attempt to record Susanna's movements in Portugal, after she had separated from her husband Victor Dockery - in essence, where she painted. Lisbon Susanna exhibited in Lisbon in 1899 and 1909 and painted at least three paintings in the vicinity of the Royal Palace at Sintra and the Belém Tower on the coast to the west of Lisbon. There is no record of her staying in the area for any length of time and probably stayed with extended members of her family. Serre do Bussaco Situated To the north of Coimbra, she visited this town on at least one occasion where she painted a fountain and shrine in the convento de Santo Cruz. Espinho The next identified location is on the coast at Espinho, some miles south of Lavadores. Espinho was known as the location of a vibrant sardine industry where many traditional sardine boats are seen lying on the beach. The place was a favoured resort for the English community and a golf course was established here in 1890, later being 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. We have no knowledge of her actually living here but she must have stayed or visited on a number of occasions. Her base may have been from her cottage in Lavadores. Lavadores Susanna lived in a cottage at Lavadores on the Atlantic coast just south the of estuary of the Douro. She had moved here in 1914 and the area features prominently in her paintings. Apart from 'Gun Rock' however, they have been difficult to locate - Lavadores has been developed heavily in modern times and the area has changed beyond recognition. Vila Nova de Gaia As we travel north, this place is the next port-of-call, which is perched on the south bank of the Douro opposite to Oporto. It would have caught Susanna's attention as at some stage it was a Roope family home, a base for the great port lodges. 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 This was her home town, the place of her birth, and of course it attracted her attention, There are paintings of the river front and steep streets, but there are not as many as one might think. There is at least one scene painted in the garden of the Rawes family situated in the northern suburbs of the city on the junction of Rua de Felizardo de Lima and Rua Direita das Campinas. Susanna's daughter May had married Prescott Rawes in 1913, the grandfather of Jonathan Rawes and myself. We rediscovered the house on a visit in 2025. It is a large house with an enclosed garden. Susanna would have stayed here when visiting her daughter. But it was the rusticity and light of northern Portugal that really attracted her. The Rawes House in Campinas, Oporto. The Douro and Eira Vehla There are many of Susanna's scenes painted of the Douro from the Estuary and Oporto up river to Pinhão and beyond; of river craft and the port wine making process, the river as it wends its way through ever steaper terrain to the quintas and vineyard gracing the terraces above. Susanna's port-of-call here was the quinta Eira Vehla set high up above the Douro and overlooking Pinhão. The quinta was one of Susanna's chief bases for living and painting and she probably stayed here on a number of occasions. It must have become her second if not her first home for a while after leaving England to settle back in Portugal. The quinta was old and its name literary means old threshing floor. The first note we have is from 1809 when from that time the Roope's had bought wine from the quinta. in 1893 However Cabel Roope purchased the freehold of the property under the umbrella of his company Hunt, Roope & Co., possibly as a wedding gift for Kate his daughter and Arthur Dagge (1855-1927). Whatever the arrangement, Arthur Dagge became the manager of the Eira Vehla estate and they lived there for many years. The property ownership was transferred to Arthur in 1907. Unfortunately, we have no obvious images of the house, but various parts of the house may appear in one or two of Susanna's paintings. The property had not been a full, autonomous quinta like: Quinta de Vargellas, Quinta de Terra Feita, Quinta de Roeda, Quinta do Junco. Instead, Eira Velha was an outlying farm / dependency belonging to the Taylor Fladgate estate network in the Pinhão - Vale de Mendiz area. In the 19th century, large Port houses often had: a main quinta plus several agricultural units (casais, eiras, pombais, small houses, used for storage, workers’ lodgings, threshing, and vineyard support. Eira Velha was one of these support properties. This explains why it had a manager, in this case Arthur Dagge; it had a house suitable for family stays; it had an eira (threshing floor) and it had a pombal (dovecote), but it was not registered as a full quinta in the Douro land books. In the 1880s–1890s, the road system around Pinhão was being improved. This did not include the lengthy mule track or bridle-path that wound its way up from the valley floor to Eira Vehla and beyond. There is a delightful story concerning the lengthy bridle-path that climbed up from the Douro to Eira Vehla:- "The beautiful quinta of Eira Velha, perched upon a shoulder of the hills overlooking the Pinhão valley, could for many years only be approached by the roughest of bridle-paths. Arthur Dagge had long wished to build up to the house from the main highway in the valley, but his requests were invariably turned down by the Juiz dos Orfãos in view of the fact that the young Cabel Roope was both a minor and an orphan (Cabel Roope had died by then). Dagge at last took desperate measures. He built the road and then invited the learned judge - who came from far afield - to visit the quinta with his wife. The two arrived at Pinhão one dark evening, and were led up the bridle-path on donkeys, the donkey-boys having been instructed to make the journey as uncomfortable and frightening as possible. Next morning, when the time came for the judge and his wife to leave. a taxi was waiting to drive them down to the train. Not a word was said, either then or ever again, upon the subject of the road." Painting srd311 depicts the new road with her title "New Road at Eira Vehla". Unfortunately a date is not given but it is assumed to have been after Arthur Dagge purchased the property in 1907. The alignment is still used today. At Eira Vehla Susanna spent much time with her easel. The house had a terrace or platform (the old threshing floor), which extended out from the hillside. It was a magnificent vantage point with sweeping views across the Douro Valley. To the right and possibly in view from the house is a 'pombal' (dovecote). Pombals were a feature in this area and the pombal at Eira Vehla was a prominent one; Susanna depicted in at least two of her paintings. In Portuguese the term means dovecote. The quinta was not just a house, a place to live, it was a working farm and a short distance away down the road on the outside of a bend in the road was the adega (farm buildings), the working part of the quinta, where no doubt the buildings housing the presses, grape harvesting machinery etc. were positioned. It is now realised that many if not all of Susanna's depictions of the wine producing process set in inside a building or buildings, would have been the setting for Susanna's paintings. The wine-making process at Eira Vehla. The setting is unmistakable - the stone walls, timber beams, and enclosed light of the adega are entirely consistent with Eira Velha, where Susanna stayed with Kate and Arthur Dagge. The baskets of grapes around the lagar confirm that this scene follows directly from the filling stage depicted in paintings srd012 and srd085. The above painting, published in Portugal: Its Land and People, in 1909, is one of Susanna’s most vivid and character‑rich depictions of pressing the grapes inside the lagar (pisar uvas). The deep burgundy‑red must (freshly crushed grape juice containing skins, seeds and stems), forms the base of the composition, but the true brilliance of the painting lies in the depiction of the men themselves, each caught in a different gesture, as if she had pressed the shutter of a camera - a moment of life frozen in time, Susanna is not painting anonymous workers, she is painting individuals: Two men are smoking, relaxed, utterly at ease, their pipes or cigarettes held casually as they tread, their presence gives the scene a social, almost convivial atmosphere; a man is holding what is probably a banjo, adding the likelihood of music to the scene; a man with his hand behind him, is possibly dancing, his posture is light, almost playful, suggesting a rhythmic movement - Douro workers traditionally sang and moved in coordinated steps - and Susanna may be capturing a moment of that rhythm; Another man is holding his hands up - perhaps gesturing to a companion, perhaps caught mid‑conversation, perhaps reacting to Susanna herself; and then there is the man looking directly at Susanna - this is the most extraordinary detail, he meets her gaze with complete immediacy, as if posing for a photograph. His expression is alert, curious, and slightly amused. This single glance anchors the entire painting in lived reality. Why this painting matters is because it is not simply a record of treading grapes, it is a record of human presence, movement, humour, and labour. Susanna captures the camaraderie of the adega - men working, talking, smoking, gesturing, laughing, and acknowledging her presence. It is one of her most remarkable achievements: a moment of Douro life preserved with photographic immediacy, a record of times past and now lost to us. We finish off with the finished process, the work is done and the product is ready for testing. In the meditative painting below is a lone man sitting by the lager holding what appears to be a tester. The man appears to be young, his clothing and confident handling of the tester imply someone with responsibility in the adega, and it is entirely possible that Susanna has painted her brother-in-law Arthur Dagge, Manager of the Eira Velha. Arthur Dagge was in possession of Eira Vehla until he died in 1927 when he is believed to have left it to his wife's nephew Noel Cabel Roope. Vila Flor There is one painting of the town to the east of Pinhão, which she must have visited. Brage & Barcelos There are at least two of her paintings which have been identified as from Brage and Barcelos. These are places where she possibly stayed on single occasions. Viana do Castelo Further up the coast is Viana do Castelo on the northern bank of the Lima is the next venue where we know Susanna visited on more than one occasion, certainly in 1900. She was particularly interested in the ruined convent outside Viana. Afife Our next place of interest is the village of Afife. Susanna rented a cottage. It is situated on the left-hand side the main road as one approaches the settlement, sandwiched between the road and the railway line. Many of Susanna's sketches and paintings were produced in and around Afife and the convent at Cabanas, which is situated just above Afife. It is not known when she first visited Afife but it would have been in the 1890s. Susanna's house in Afife. This section is yet to be written. Ancora is just north of Afife and at least one painting is known. Caminha Situated on the border with Spain and the estuary of Rio Minho and is represented by several of her paintings. Susanna Roope Dockery died on 20th September 1927 at Frank Yeatman's house Quinta da Boeira in Vila Nova de Gaia and was buried in the English Cemetery in Oporto. Julian Rawes, Crooked Walls, Harvington, 2026.