This short story is included in the collection “Alive in Shape and Color – 17 Paintings by Great Artists and the Stories They Inspired” by Lawrence Block. This specific story is based on the painting by Balthus “Les beaux jours” (1946), a child reclining on a meridian sofa, legs spread open, right breast visible. A weird story of a girl who sees this painting in a museum and then is at the same time the girl in the picture, posing for Balthus in the “Grand Chalet” in Switzerland. A kind of four-dimensional narrative. I went to look back at Balthus’s paintings. I never liked his work, but the numerous canvases with these very young girls in suggestive poses made me cringe, and the plot of this short story contributed to it.
“Master tugs at my tight-fitting sleeve, pulling it off my shoulder to expose my right breast that is small and hard as an unripened apple. The skirt of this (tight) dress which I have been given to wear is very short, and falls back to reveal much of my legs. In other paintings, in other rooms, the stark white of my little-girl panties is revealed as Master has positioned my legs, spread my legs just so.”