Jennifer McCrea (Holywood

Roberta at the opening of Coventry Cathedral in 1962. John Hewitt Society. Roberta and John. John Hewitt Society

Roberta was a complex, multifaceted character, and the quality that I would like to focus on is her instinctive and informed response to cultural matters — specifically her critical analysis of art and literature. While John was the great man of letters, I feel that Roberta’s qualities influenced John far more than she has yet been credited with.

When reading the sympathy letters that John received after Roberta’s death, most are written with condolences and platitudes, just a small number described the intellect of Roberta that we have come to know from the diaries and our knowledge of her book reviews. One letter, written by Elsie Patton, noted that “…she [Roberta] developed from being pleasantly intelligent into a near intellectual.”39 It is abundantly clear from her diaries that Roberta read widely and deeply: an example of her critical view and her familiarity with the forms and devices used in literature can be seen in the following quotation:

“Sunday 11th. A wet Sunday. Had a lovely breakfast in bed and read part of B. Kiely’s ‘Call for a Miracle’. I am very much interested in it & feel that here we have J. Joyce’s influence in the right vein for the first time in our young prose writers. [...] I also feel he has a central theme more than a central plot & the meetings in the pubs of lonely people comparable to the Greek chorus. An important book.”40

In 1949 John and Roberta took a trip to Venice which included a day trip to Padua.

39 Elsie Patton, letter of condolence to John Hewitt (D3838/3/19) 40 Roberta Hewitt's 1951-1974 Diary (D3838/4/2/2): p.653

Condolence Letter from Elsie Patton to John Hewitt. PRONI: D3838/3/19

At different times both wrote their responses to visiting the Arena Chapel to see the frescoes of Giotto. Interestingly Roberta would have written hers first in her diary — presumably shortly after the visit. Whereas John wrote his account much later in his memoir/autobiography A North Light which he started in 1961. It is quite possible that John later drew on Roberta’s diaries for the parts in A North Light that coincided with the timespan of his book, as their versions of events such as their conclusions about the importance of Giotto’s frescos are very similar.

Condolence Letter from Elsie Patton to John Hewitt. PRONI: D3838/3/19

The visit of Brendan Behan, an incident in Venice where they drank wine and watched a sunset, or the Folkdance festival are just a few further examples of very similar accounts of events. The language is different, however, especially when evaluating art. John had a more considered and cerebral approach to art analysis, he is disegno! While he felt strongly about it and was tireless in promoting contemporary northern Irish artists, his writing is a little ostentatiously intellectual. This was possibly quite typical of the connoisseurial approach of the art curator of his era:

“Hewitt might almost be criticized for being a throwback to a form of fustian antiquarianism, were it not for the pervading energy of of [sic] engagement with his subject.”41

In contrast, Roberta feels things in a much more instinctive and Venetian way, her remarks in relation to art come from the heart and are imbued with emotion and colore. This is important because it demonstrates that her thoughts in her diary are all hers and John may have used Roberta’s notes as an aide memoir for his later account. Perhaps we have underestimated just how integral to his work Roberta was?

The following is Roberta’s response to the visit to the Arena Chapel and this is the quotation that I would like to use for this project:

“[...] the old place [university] was lovely, the modern paintings on the walls I disliked, (ah! grey hairs, Roberta) BUT THE GIOTTOS - Oh, dear, I have no words, to say lovely, impressive, spellbinding, wonderful, nothing comes near it, reverence perhaps and deep and lasting experience - certainly worth the visit to Italy alone. I remember meeting Edwin and Willa Muir, as we lowered our eyes to prople [sic] for a moment and seeing her eyes bright with feeling a [sic] her cheeks flushed, and obviously not wanting us to say a word or have to speak.”42

Roberta ardently conveys through her words that for this alone she would visit Italy, the impact of seeing this fresco cycle was a powerful emotional encounter and the experience incomparable: she notes in the entry that she found it difficult to leave the chapel. In A North Light, John reaches a similar conclusion that even a visit to Florence and Assisi years later could not compare to the experiencing the greatness of Giotto’s work in the Arena Chapel in Padua: “The only other experience at all comparable to this was not in Venice, where Tintoretto stood supreme, but in Padua, in the Arena Chapel when we moved among to Giottos with the toy landscapes, with the sheep-like whippets and the smiling camel, where every human gesture had been grasped and made sculptural and hieratic forever; and in that place I realized why Giotto most always be counted among the first. The appreciation of Tintoretto was, in a way, our own discovery, for fashion had not then veered towards him so strongly as a decade later; but our confrontation with Giotto had all the sublimity of a Chestertonian commonplace, that grass is green, a greatness which received no increment from our experiences in Florence and Assisi thirteen years later.”43

For John, I think both Roberta and his work were equally the most important things in his life. However, Roberta took a typical mid-20th century approach to her marriage to John: her husband came first, and her role was to support him in both his life and his work and to defer to him and his educated opinion – and she did in most things. She didn’t even want him to read her diaries as she felt it would be a waste of his time. Despite her lack of education, Roberta had enough cultural awareness to express her own views as this diary entry demonstrates:

“To the Accademia. We loved the Carpaccios, a lovely wee room of Bellini's and J. was thrilled to see the Giorgione. I like the Memling, but ilk [sic] the one in London of the Young girl with the net on her forehead better, not much impressed with Veronese - but I suppose I'd better keep this dark. Great Mantegna of St George. We thought the Louvre Guardi's were better than the Guardi's here. Liked St Clair by A. Vivarini, I had never heard of him. but One and a half visits to this place is useless, we misses [sic] many lovely things and saw many

41 A North Light: Twenty-Five Years in a Municipal Art Gallery (2013 42 Roberta Hewitt's 1947-1950 Diary (D3838/4/2/1): p.337 43 A North Light: Twenty-Five Years in a Municipal Art Gallery (2013)

very ordinary paintings. J. says bad, but I am afraid to suggest that any bad things could come from the old Italians ...well, almost.”44

Roberta was not only a supportive spouse in a domestic context, but she was also an intelligent and knowledgeable partner…with a sense of humour! I feel that her intellectual contribution to their dialogue had a significant influence on John, yet that she was unaware of the value of this to him.

In the diaries there are many examples of Roberta’s informed opinion on art, or accounts of conversations with artists about their work that show she was capable of not just expressing her likes and dislikes but was a competent and critical judge of art. I selected the above quotation about the Arena Chapel visit because I would like to highlight Roberta’s confident and knowledgeable expression of her opinion and her feelings, and because I believe, that like Nora Barnacle with James Joyce, Roberta was more a part of John’s writing than she would ever have imagined.

44 Roberta Hewitt's 1947-1950 Diary (D3838/4/2/1): p.338