15 
A COMPOSITION OF WHITE. 
The true primitive colour of light, unmixed with any other substance, is 
white. I shall therefore speak of this colour first. Its contrast,or opposite,is 
of course black, or darkness. But as there never is a case in composition, 
where a white object is left unqualified by shade, neither is there any,where 
much pure black is required as a balance to it, so that a dark grey is almost a 
balance sufficient: for though black must be admitted, it should be with great 
care, and only in proportion to the pure touches of white in the object. But 
though a very pleasing effect may, in some instances, be produced in compo¬ 
sition by a warm tint, and its contrast, by blending the two extremes to¬ 
gether, yet in painting from nature you are unavoidably obliged to employ 
more; for instance, a white flower and its green leaves: and it may be im¬ 
possible, with a strict attention to nature, if the composition is a slight one, 
to give its balance,or contrast,any way but in the ground it is painted on; 
and white objects should always be painted on a coloured ground, and that 
ground should be a cold one, otherwise it might catch the eye first; any tint 
of grey down to black will do: but both one and the other should be mellowed 
by a mixture of yellow, to soften down that extreme cold hue they would 
otherwise have, which would be unpleasing to the eye. 
The contrast,or balance to white is, as has been said, grey and black. 
The harmonising tint, yellow, from its full to its palest gradation; or,if the 
subject will not admit of it, then a yellow green, from its full to its palest 
gradation ; and if the subject will not admit of this in the latter state, then 
the painter’s ingenuity is called upon, to introduce one or both these tints by 
some other means, in this and every other similar instance, but with care not to 
offend against propriety in the subject. The reflected tint may be composed 
of some of the principal warm,and next harmonising tints, deadened by black, 
and made paler with white if requisite. The reflected tint is meant to express 
that warm lighter shade, to be seen on the dark side of all round bodies at the 
