"The Art Teacher" is a song written and performed by American-Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. It originally appeared on his extended play (EP), Waiting for a Want, released by DreamWorks Records in June 2004 as a preview of his fourth studio album, Want Two, which was released by Geffen Records in November 2004. The lyrics in the piano ballad describe a middle-aged woman's recollection of an unrequited love for her teacher. The song explores gender and sexuality, and its music has been compared to work by Philip Glass. "The Art Teacher" has received a generally positive reception, and appears on other releases in Wainwright's discography, including Live at the Fillmore, a concert film accompanying Want Two. The song also appears on Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright, a greatest hits album, and the live album Rufus Wainwright: Live from the Artists Den, both of which were released in 2014. Composition "The Art Teacher" was written by Rufus Wainwright. According to the singer, the song was inspired by a heterosexual male teacher who spoke of his infatuated female students. Wainwright recalled: The music in the song has been compared to Philip Glass's work, with Wainwright's "round vocals [leaping] from deep lows to piqued highs". According to The Guardian, the ostinato song has a simple harmony and melody, and sounds like a Philip Glass composition." Pitchfork Stephen Deusner described "The Art Teacher" as "a woman remembering her first love, the instructor of the title who turned her on to Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner", with the story told "over a Philip Glass prism of piano chords, a plaintive horn, and a slightly sped-up tempo". Youa Vang of City Pages described the song as melancholic, with a "rumbling" piano. The lyrics in the piano ballad describe a middle-aged woman's recollection of an "unrequited schoolgirl crush". Bud Scoppa of Paste characterized the song as a short story "in which a lonely woman looks back on a delirious schoolgirl crush", and Mojo Danny Eccleston said Wainwright "[inhabits] a woman's lifelong obsession with the titular pedagogue, as she relives a school trip to an art museum". According to Vang, the song tells the story "of a young girl who fell in love with her art teacher, telling how first loves are always the most intense and how no one after can compare". In 2014, Drowned in Sound Marc Burrows called the song an exploration of Wainwright's