White is interesting in many ways and we intend to give it back its legitimacy, at least in one respect: it is a colour. First of all, if you have read our article Blushing with pleasure you know that the ancient colour system was based on three basic colours: white, red and black. Moreover, "whiter than white" writing or drawing materials are a fairly recent concept. Think, for example, of the grey walls of prehistoric caves or the bisque parchments that required the use of white, turning it into a pigment in its own right. In fact, since it is a colour that cannot be obtained by mixing, white is almost, along with red, blue and yellow, the^fourth primary colour of the painter. Black is obtained by mixing the three colours mentioned above. 

 

 

 

Infamous disgrace

 

Antique pink gold ring with adularescent blue-grey chalcedony and pearls

 

This description seems to stem from Newton's discovery of the decomposition of white light in the 17th century. From ultraviolet to infrared, the light spectrum contains all the colours of the rainbow. White, as soon as it includes all the colours, loses its own label. Michel Pastoureau and Dominique Simonnet's book Les couleurs expliquées en images offers a lovely metaphor of life as a journey through colours, from white to white: from the white light of the Big Bang to that at the end of the tunnel. And the circle is complete!

The other exciting fact about white is that, globally, it is no longer associated with negative connotations. We can certainly think of two or three things that are not particularly pleasing: the hospital, the absence in terms of vocabulary (to have a white person, to have a white night, to vote white, etc.), the spectres - which child has not shuddered to see the White Lady at night by the side of a road? Or finally to sects whose members are often dressed in white in reference to the notion of purity of colour.

Moreover, it is one of the few, if not the only colour for which the symbolism seems eternal. The same cannot be said for green, but to find out, have you read Fifty shades of green ?

 

Pompadour opal ring with diamond setting

 

 

A diamond of innocence

 

White has long been implicitly and universally associated with purity. In the article Purple talesIn the article, we tell you about purple, white and green suffragette jewellery; white representing 'honourability'. This association goes back to ancient Rome, where candidates for election used to wear white. This is where their name comes from, as candidus means 'white' in Latin. The word 'white' has Germanic roots: it comes from blank, which refers to bright white, as opposed to dull white. In French we don't have this distinction at all, but did you know that the Eskimos have no less than 40 words for snow?

 

 Vintage rose gold and dendrite agate pendant

 

Snow reinforces this symbol of virtue: according to Pastoureau, no other colour is so united in nature. In painting, on the other hand, there is a wide range of coloured whites. Whistler's Symphony in White, No. 1, for example, vies with Kasimir Malevich's White Square on a White Background (1918) as the first monochrome in the history of art.

 

James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, National Gallery, Washington, 1862

 

The pearl is also praised for its purity. Unlike precious and semi-precious stones, it requires no human intervention to reveal its beauty. Pearls have been relatively devalued since the 1920s with the appearance on the market of cultured pearls, but before that they were as rare, if not rarer, than diamonds for example and were a real symbol of wealth.

 

Belle Epoque heart necklace, fine pearls and diamonds

 

In ancient Greece, pearls were called "Aphrodite's tears" and were thought to have resulted from the fertilisation of an oyster with a drop of dew. As a symbol of water and the moon, the pearl is attributed to the feminine and to fertility; perhaps also because of the vulval shape of the oyster. Moreover, the small pearls are called "seed pearls" (that of the dewdrop - we specify, even if obviously no one here has an evil mind). In any case, there is an analogy between the purity of the pearl and the chastity of young girls. Moreover, it was historically customary to give little girls a pearl on each of their birthdays until a necklace could be made. At about the same time as their marriageable age! Coincidence?

 

 

Church and marriage

 

In a Manichean system that separates good from evil without nuance, the latter is black while the former is white.

White is associated with spirituality and holiness, starting with mythology. Zeus, who uses various disguises to approach his prey, transforms himself into a white bull with golden horns to kidnap Europa, or into a swan to seduce Leda. Even if there is much to be said for the manners of the superstar pervert of Olympus, we note that white has been linked to the divine since the dawn of time.

 

 Antique hair comb, silver tiara

 

An equation taken up by the Church: isn't the Pope dressed in white? Moreover, in the Catholic hierarchy, the higher the rank, the lighter the colour of the habit, from the priests dressed in black to the Pope dressed in white. There are other examples: the white light representing God, the host, the risen Jesus wearing a white tunic, the dove of the Holy Spirit. Do you know the eponymous jewel? If not, we recommend that you read our article on the religious jewellery. And then, from 1854 and the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, white became, along with blue, the second colour of the Virgin. The white lily, symbol of purity since Antiquity, is also linked to Mary from then on, and the story is so adorable that we share it with you. In addition to the symbolism of innocence, the lily's phallic bud opens like a trumpet. It is rumoured that the Virgin became pregnant by hearing the word of God.

 

 Art Deco medal Virgin on mother-of-pearl, gold and fine pearls

 

The major stages of a Catholic's life are finally marked by whiteness: baptism, communion and eventually marriage. It is the latter that interests us: at the end of the 18th century, bourgeois values were gradually replacing those of the aristocrats, and so it became essential for young girls to display their virginity by wearing a white dress on the big day. Previously, young women wore their best dress for the occasion, and white was in fact the colour of mourning until the 17th century. The Queen Victoria contributed to the popularity of the immaculate dress when she married Albert in 1840. It seems that Lady Diana's cream dress for her wedding to Prince Charles was shocking, being seen at the time as a disavowal of chastity. 1981, you say?

 

Diana Spencer's wedding to the Prince of Wales

 

 

 

Whiteness as a social issue

 

It is rather interesting that in the 21st century the tradition of the white wedding dress continues despite changing mores and the age of Tinder.

 

 White gold and diamond drapery necklace

 

Whiteness has long been an important social issue. Michel Pastoureau (again!) questions the human ambition to believe himself pure and innocent. The "white" man is no whiter than the eponymous wine or sand, but it would seem that here the symbol flatters his narcissism. We can quickly see the drift of white supremacist thinking through the Ku Klux Klan or Hitler's Aryan race in particular, but we seem to have trouble bending the neck of another ideal even today: that of the female model with white skin and blond hair. According to the Renaissance aesthetic canon, a lady should have three white things: her teeth, her skin and her hands. You won't learn anything by mentioning the use of white make-up under the Ancien Régime. At that time, it was necessary to distinguish oneself from the workers who had to expose their skin to the sun.

 

 Cameo pendant brooch with agate, pearls and diamonds

 

The tanning craze is interesting in this respect: from the Roaring Twenties onwards, new values were put in place that were to become those of the 20th century, particularly around youth and health through sport. The first low-cut swimming costumes, the first seaside holidays; the film Tarzan with Johnny Weissmüller in 1932 or the bikini in 1946 contributed to the establishment of the cult of the healthy and tanned body. The trend seems to be reversing in recent years with an attempt to deconstruct physical archetypes and to abandon tanning, which has become a mass phenomenon, not to mention the threat of cancer inherent in it.

This desire to return to naturalness is found at the beginning of the 19th century. After the rococo period, a revival of Antiquity appears, very well embodied by the empire dresses. We have an example of this below with a portrait of Juliette Récamier kept in the Louvre.  

 

Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin, Portrait of Juliette Récamier (1777-1849), Date unknown, Paris, Musée du Louvre.

 

Not only was there no need to fear pneumonia, but this is a fantasy clacissism, since we know today that the ancient statues and temples that have come down to us in white were coloured at the time. There is also a social rank issue in all this: we can afford to be dressed in white when there is no risk of getting dirty in everyday life - Cuckoo Eddy Barclay 's White Evenings . Of course, actors in the food industry often wear white coats, but this has more to do with the hygienic dimension of white.

 

 

 

White and white jewellery

 

 Vintage flower ring in white gold with pearl and diamonds

 

We mentioned pearls above, but what about other white, tinted white or colourless materials in jewellery? We can mention among others: agate, mother-of-pearl, rock crystal diamondgypsum, ivory, boneopal These include agate, mother-of-pearl, rock crystal, gypsum, ivory, bone, milky stone, chalcedony, glass, moonstone, girasol (a variety of white quartz) and sepiolite or meerschaum. Platinum, white gold and silver also come to mind among the precious metals.

 

Now you understand why "Juste Leblanc" from the film Le dîner de cons could not be called Lenoir? From now on, the next person who tries to take you for a white goose by claiming that white is not a colour is likely to make... a blank!