Fort of Monte Serrat, showing a two story house in the foreground that does not exist anymore. The picture has the dimension of the paint box which Valença used to take with him.

The impressionists’ pictures are generally small, once they used to paint in open air. Valença had the habit of carrying a flexible easel and his complete painting equipment in the streetcar heading for Itapagipe Peninsula where Monte Serrat neighborhood is located.

Monte Serrat Fort is a military monument located on top of a hill, facing All Saints’ Bay. In colonial days, when Salvador was the capital of Brazil, the fort was a mark of the northern limit of the city.

It is shaped as an irregular hexagonal polygon with circular watchtowers at the vertices covered by domes.