Law of Two-thirds

Painter and engraver John Thomas Smith coined "the rule of thirds" in his 1797 publication Remarks on Rural Scenery, citing conversations with Sir Joshua Reynolds about proportional balance in composition. Smith wrote that a proportion of approximately two-thirds to one-third was "a much better and more harmonising proportion than other proportions." The principle had deeper roots in the golden ratio, used by Greek architects and mathematicians centuries earlier as a naturally pleasing proportional model.