The art tutor

The Hungarian National Gallery was holding an exhibition of works by Janos Thorma – an artist of whom, I confess, I’d never heard. Some of his work was really rather good – including a few rather lovely nudes. But it was a quote on one of the displays that caught my eye most of all:

He was a brilliant man and an inspiring teacher. His dinners were famous – he would invite his new students to find out more about their problems. Sometimes he took us out on his carriage to the places where he worked or recited poems to relax

No, I’m sure everything was above board. He wouldn’t ever have taken advantage of any student whilst out in the countryside – listening to her concerns, offering a caring shoulder to cry on, kissing her then seducing her in the open air. Wouldn’t have asked certain of them to stay behind after dinner, with the promise of better grades if they were good and co-operative.

Wouldn’t ever have persuaded the prettiest of the girls to model naked for him – including for the pictures for those private collectors, who did like to see the subjects of their purchases displaying reddened or striped backsides. Wouldn’t possibly have dealt with any lasses who confessed to struggling for artistic inspiration by beating them soundly, with the promise that such actions might bring back their muse.

Actually, I’m sure he wouldn’t. But, as you can imagine, the ideas rather distracted me from the latter parts of the collection of his works.

 

7 thoughts on “The art tutor

  • 26 March, 2013 at 4:01 pm
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    What if the art teacher had taken some of his young female students – along with easels and paint boxes – out to the countryside to gain inspiration from nature?
    Then what if he came across one young lady daydreaming in front of her blank canvas?
    She needed to be given a lesson in motivation.

    The teacher might remove his belt, or maybe send another of the girls to collect switches.
    The idle girl would then be told to bend over in front of the others, bottom bare.
    A lesson in the creative use of colour would follow. Pinks, reds and purples.
    When it was over, the punished girl might be made to pose with her striped buttocks on view, so the other students could capture the moment in watercolours.

    A whole new meaning to ‘Impressionism’?

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  • 26 March, 2013 at 4:17 pm
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    Steve – you now have me imagining the end-of-year how, in which the tutor would exhibit as well as his students. Imagine the humiliation of one such trainee, with whom he’d been intimate, if the tutor’s painting was of the girl in the throes of passion… seeing herself displayed for all to see.

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  • 26 March, 2013 at 9:04 pm
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    Humiliation? What if the student had invited her parents, unaware of what the tutor would exhibit?

    The look of shock on her mother’s face.
    Her father whispering in her ear. “We will speak about this when we get home.”

    Reply
  • 27 March, 2013 at 6:32 am
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    I as rather assuming they’d be there. Her punishment afterwards would necessarily be severe – a mix of “how dare you humiliate your mother and me like that”, “you have brought shame on yourself and our family” and “you little whore”…

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  • 27 March, 2013 at 7:23 am
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    … and the student, knowing she has it coming anyway, boldly replacing her fruit bowl painting she displayed for her parents’ benefit by her daring sketch of that male nude model from week 7.

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  • 27 March, 2013 at 7:37 am
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    So bold, Svetlana! (I rather doubt it: I think she’d be too ashamed and too terrified?)

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  • 27 March, 2013 at 7:47 am
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    You are probably right. I was just thinking that if you need to suffer for art, it should be your own, not for someone else’s.

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