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Artists had been engaged in visualizing time, the fourth dimension, since the beginning of the 20th c., i.e. since the appearance of futurism. Derkovits proved to set a good example in this respect, too. The worker who is reading in the foreground symbolizes present, the mirror behind him on the wall reflects past, and Marx's portrait and the mother with her child project future. Thus, the composition with several viewpoints synthethizes three events of different times and locations. Derkovits portrayed time the same way in "Grape Eaters" and in his self-portrait in pastels (1929) and in "Auction" (1930). In European art, the figure of the worker reading a book appears in Masereel's "Passion of a Man" for the first time where the figure is leaning to a lamp-post.
Derkovits' picture was preceded by several drawings and sketches, e.g. for "Proletar", he did a picture with a portrait of Marx, and "Talking Workers" with the inscription "MAR(X)". The picture was directly preceded by "Family" (or "Proletarian Family") painted in 1932. In the case of this picture, Derkovits avoided all superfluous elements of still-life, he painted figures and surroundings in a reduced form. Instead, he concentrated on the most important figures and applied colours to make them more apparent. Although this work is based on the delicate contrast of cold and warm colours, red is emphasized stronger.
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