sexuality. In addition to Turner, the song's lyrics reference the painters Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, and John Singer Sargent as the teacher escorts his students through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recordings and performances "The Art Teacher" originally appeared on Wainwright's 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 track was recorded live at Le Metropolis in Montreal by Guillaume Bengle and Rod Shearer; Marius de Vries is credited as the producer. According to The Guardian Alexis Petridis, the live recording is "unadorned – you can hear Wainwright gasping for breath between each line". The EP version is slightly different from the Want Two version, which features an overdubbed horn solo. The song appears on other releases in Wainwright's discography, including Live at the Fillmore, a concert film accompanying Want Two. The Want Two version also appears on Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright, a greatest hits album released in February 2014 by Universal Music Enterprises in Australia and Ireland, and in other nations subsequently. Wainwright performs "The Art Teacher" on the live album Rufus Wainwright: Live from the Artists Den, which was recorded in 2012 and released by Artists Den Records and Universal Music Enterprises in March 2014. Wainwright performed the song on NPR Music's "Tiny Desk Concerts" series in August 2012. In December 2012, he sang "The Art Teacher", among other songs, at the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live's Clive Davis Theater as part of the museum's "An Evening With" series. Wainwright performed the song on the 22nd episode of American Public Media's program Wits ("Kristen Schaal with Rufus Wainwright"), which aired in April 2013, and during his appearance at Royal Albert Hall for The Proms, which was broadcast by the BBC in September 2014. Wainwright has also performed the song live in concert. In his review of Wainwright's 2016 concert at Bristol's Colston Hall, Lou Trimby wrote: "Wainwright also writes brilliantly from the point of view of a woman – a prime example being 'The Art Teacher' which tells one of the saddest stories committed to music. His rendition convinced you that he was the female protagonist, not just playing a part but inhabiting her psyche." Reception "The Art Teacher" has received a generally positive critical reception. Alexis Petridis called the song "lovely".