Balthus's work may carry some paedophilic content - but that doesn't mean this painting should be banned 

The only thing surprising about the controversy currently surrounding Balthus’s Therese Dreaming is that it’s been this long in coming. The painting shows a 12-year-old girl in a kind of sensual stupor, with the painting’s play of light and limbs drawing our attention inexorably to the girl’s underpants.

It’s not as though this provocative painting is an anomaly in the work of the late Balthassar Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus. From the early Thirties (this work is from 1938) until his death, he returned to this subject again and again. Indeed, the term “Balthus figure” has become art world shorthand for a scantily clad, underage girl.

But while Balthus’s work has always been considered risqué (what a wonderfully old-fashioned word that is), the fact that he lived out his lengthy career without incurring any really damaging controversy says a great deal about how much we’re prepared...