Watteau

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TopicsInferenceSociety

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Passage

Late-nineteenth-century books about the French artist Watteau (1684–1721) betray a curious blind spot: more than any single artist before or since, Watteau provided his age with an influential image of itself, and nineteenth-century writers accepted this image as genuine. This was largely due to the enterprise of Watteau’s friends who, soon after for biographers to refer to him as “the personification of the witty and amiable eighteenth century.”

In fact, Watteau saw little enough of that “witty and amiable” century for which so much nostalgia was generally felt between about 1870 and 1920, a period during which enthusiasm for the artist reached its peak. The eighteenth century’s first decades, the period of his artistic activity, were fairly calamitous ones. During the year of Watteau’s first Paris successes, was marked by military defeat and a disastrous famine.

Most of Watteau’s nineteenth-century admirers simply ignored the grim background of the works they found so lyrical and charming. Those who took the inconvenient historical facts into consideration did so only in order to refute the widely held deterministic view that the content and style of an artist’s work were absolutely dictated record the society he knew, but rather “foresaw” a society that developed shortly after his death.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

18.

It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s view of Watteau’s works differs most significantly from that of most late-nineteenth-century Watteau admirers in which

Answer choices

Contradicted: unlike admirers1% picked this
Unlike most late-nineteenth-century Watteau admirers, the author appreciates the importance of
This doesn't even make sense ... this answer is saying that "Watteau admirers do not appreciate the important of Watteau's artistic accomplishments".
1%
Wrong Disagreement9% picked this
The author finds Watteau’s works to be much less lyrical and charming than did most late- nineteenth-century
The author never objects that Watteau was not lyrical or charming. She is just saying that being lyrical and charming is not a correct personification of France during Watteau's time. She thinks his art was a mismatch for his time period, whereas admirers think that it is a personification of the time period.
9%
Correct72% picked this
In contrast to most late-nineteenth-century Watteau admirers, the author finds it misleading to see Watteau’s works as
Why this is right
The admirers think that Watteau's art personifies the time he lived in, whereas our author says in the first paragraph that Watteau's images "bore little relationship to reality". The 2nd paragraph is all about how the decades of Watteau's artistic period were "fairly calamitous ones" in France. The 3rd paragraph begins by saying that "admirers simply ignored the grim background of the works they found so lyrical and charming".
Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
72%
Wrong Disagreement17% picked this
The author is much more willing to entertain deterministic explanations of the origins of Watteau’s works than were
The admirers often use Watteau as a way to refute the idea of determinism, and our author finds their logic pretty dumb because they're ignoring pretty obvious known facts that conflict with the narratives they've created. But that doesn't mean our author is wanting us to consider deterministic explanations of the origins of Watteau's works. We can say, "Your argument for X is pretty dumb" without meaning, "I think we should be arguing not-X."
17%
Too Strong: impossible / any1% picked this
Unlike most late-nineteenth-century admirers of Watteau, the author considers it impossible for any work of art to personify or
Our author is only writing that Watteau is a curious case where his admirers think of his art as personifying / representing a particular historical period in France, even though it doesn't. But that doesn't mean our author holds the extreme position that "it is impossible for any work of art to personify a historical time period."
1%

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