PrepTest 138, Section 3, Question 23
Art historian: This painting, purportedly by Mary Cassatt,(53 more words not shown)
The art historian's argument depends(7 more words not shown)
- AThe type of(17 more words not shown)
- BNone of Cassatt's(17 more words not shown)
- CCassatt's work generally(17 more words not shown)
- DThe most characteristic(8 more words not shown)
- ENo painter other(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if Cassatt was experimenting?
The materials and subject matter fit her work, but the brush style doesn't match any painting known to be hers. That is a difference worth investigating. It isn't automatically proof that she couldn't have painted this one. An artist can try a new technique, and the works we already know may not display every technique the artist ever used.
What we’re looking for
The historian nevertheless concludes that this is definitely not a genuine Cassatt. To get there from the brushwork, the argument needs to rule out that possibility of an unfamiliar but authentic style. For the required assumption, look for a claim that her known works cover the brush styles we could find in any genuine work. This doesn't require her to have painted everything in one style; she could have several, provided all were represented among the known paintings.
Working the answers
- A
The materials needn't have been readily available. A forger could have obtained scarce canvas with considerable difficulty. The argument may require a possible explanation for matching materials, but it doesn't require that other people could easily obtain them. The word 'readily' adds more than the reasoning needs.
- BCorrect
No genuine Cassatt uses a brush style absent from all her known work. In simpler terms, there aren't authentic Cassatt styles missing from the known collection. The disputed painting uses such a missing style, so this assumption permits the historian to rule it out. If Cassatt did sometimes use a style we hadn't previously seen, that very difference would no longer establish forgery.
- C
The disputed painting already has subject matter similar to Cassatt's. Making her usual subjects distinctive doesn't explain why a brushwork difference proves this one isn't hers. Nor does the argument require her subjects to distinguish her from other artists; the historian's decisive evidence concerns brush style.
- D
A feature can be highly characteristic without being present in every authentic work. Even if brush style were her most recognizable feature, she could have experimented on one occasion. We need the claim that an unseen style rules out authenticity, not a ranking of which feature is most characteristic.
- E
This concerns someone else perfectly matching Cassatt's brush style. Our painting doesn't match the known styles. Whether other painters can imitate those styles therefore doesn't establish whether Cassatt herself could have used this different one. E addresses a match when the argument depends on a mismatch.
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