Theory of the Leasure Class

The “Theory of the Leisure Class,” is the title of a book written by a sociologist named Thorstein Veblen. I’m not going to attempt to summarize the book in any way. I tried to read it on more than one occasion but was never able to finish it. Perhaps I felt that it was a series of very cogent observations which would lead me to the conclusion the my life and work was all a complete waste of time.

At one point in the book he talks about architecture, here is what he has to say in 1899:

“The endless variety of fronts presented by the better
class of tenements and apartment houses in our cities is an
endless variety of architectural distress with a suggestion
of expensive discomfort. Considered as objects of beauty, the
dead walls of the sides and back of these structures, left
untouched by the hands of the artists, are commonly the best
feature of the building.”

This is very radical thinking for 1899, and the history of architecture from then until now looks as though it has strained every nerve just to please Mr. Veblen. But personally I think that such thinking leads to the Stalinist style of architecture we can see, throughout the world, starting in the thirties, and ending in the late seventies.

But I love the fact that he contrasts the fronts and sides of buildings in his writing, and it is true that in the architecture of his time the buildings exhibited these two radically different sensibilities. The fronts are ornate and decorative, and the backs and sides are utilitarian and devoid of decoration. I often develop the same observation in my drawings and this one is a very good example.

This drawing measures 5.75” x 8.”. It is drawn on gessoed cold press watercolor paper with a black wax pencil, with highlights put in with white paint and a brush.

Some Color Theory

Color Theory

Here is some color theory, it may come in useful if you have to pick out some wallpaper, or express an opinion about the fabrics in someone’s living room.


The colors of the color wheel consist of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, usually named in that order and arranged in a circle. This list of colors alternates between primaries, and secondaries. The primaries cannot be mixed, and the secondaries are composed of there adjacent primaries.


Red is referred to as the “compliment” of Green. Blue is the “complement” of Orange, and Yellow is the “compliment” of Violet. What, do you suppose is meant by the term compliment?

You might just assume that it means “Looks good with” as in, “that hat compliments your scarf.” But it is more complicated than that.

A compliment is an amount that makes up a total as in “These ten men complete the compliment of the band” in other words it means, to make up the difference. If you consider the colors and their compliments, each set is a combination of one primary and one secondary color. Take for example Red and Green. Red is a primary and green is a secondary, made up of blue and yellow. Therefore Red, combined with its secondary equals the three primaries because Green is actually Yellow and Blue.

The point here is that each combination of a color with its complement is actually the whole spectrum because all possible colors get represented in the combination. So it is true that these colors complement each other and bring each other to life.

Furthermore you don't even need to have the second color to get the complementary effect since the eye produces an after image of the complementary color when ever we look at a color. It is a scientific fact that the longer you look at yellow the more violet your eye sees. Just pull down a white shade over a window on a bright day, the shade will be a glowing yellow color. Look right at it for about a minute, and then close your eyes, and cover them with your hands. In that darkness you will see a purple violet rectangle, the after image of the yellow you saw with your eyes open. It was there also when your eyes were open, and if you would notice, you would see its edge bordering the yellow, when ever your eyes readjust.

It is interesting to study that color patch that you see with your eyes closed. It will gradually change, from the outside border, in, and runb through the entire spectrum, as the cones in your retna vibrate at slower frequencies. Those colors in your eyes are called "phosphines"