Vivian Hewitt, Who Amassed a Major Collection of Black Art, Dies at 102

Even as she climbed the career ladder, her success was primarily a way to support her love of art. But even during the height of the Hewitts’ collecting years, from the 1960s to the ’80s, before many Black artists were accepted by the mainstream, an Ernest Crichlow painting was no offhand purchase.

“It was a sacrifice,” Ms. Hewitt told The Washington Post. “But we just had a passion for art. We bought what we liked, instinctively, intuitively. And we knew what we liked. Nine times out of 10, we agreed on what to purchase. The other time we compromised.”

Vivian Ann Davidson was born on Feb. 17, 1920, in New Castle, Pa., north of Pittsburgh. Her father, Arthur Davidson, was a waiter and a butler, and her mother, Lela (Mauney) Davidson, was a teacher. Through her mother she traced her family history to an enslaved woman named Silvy, who was brought from Guinea.

Though she often lamented her lack of artistic skills, Vivian grew up surrounded by art and developed an appreciation for it. Her parents made sure to take her to touring exhibitions that passed through Pittsburgh. A reproduction of Jean-François Millet’s “The Gleaners” hung on their living room wall.

She studied psychology and French at Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pa., and graduated in 1943. A year later she received a master’s in library science from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, today a part of Carnegie Mellon University.

After spending five years with the Pittsburgh public library, she took a job as a teaching librarian at Atlanta University, today Clark Atlanta University. One day an English professor from nearby Morehouse College, John Hamilton Hewitt Jr., came to check out a book. They started talking about art, one thing led to another, and within a few months they were married.