12.Practice.Tests.for.the.SAT_2015-2016_1128p

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Section 4
Practice Test Ten
Questions 13-24 are based on the following passage.
The following passage is adapted from an art history website
that details the careers of American artists.
Winslow Homer stands alone among American
painters of the late 1800s. He had little academic
training, remained largely untouched by the inno­
Line vations of the French Impressionists of his era,
(5) and associated little with other artists. Despiteor
perhaps because of-his refusal to follow the
prescribed path to artistic success, he earned a
.
comfortable living as a painter and even before his
death was revered by many as one of the fathers of
(10) American painting.
Homer was born in Boston in 1836 and grew
up in the Massachusetts countryside, Before he
reached his teens, he had decided to become an
artist. He took the first step toward that goal in
(15) 1854 by accepting an apprenticeship at a printing
company, where he designed advertisements
and sheet-music covers. By 1859, he had moved
to New York and was working as an illustrator
for Harper's Weekly, a successful periodical. A few
(20) courses at a New York art school during his stay
in the city would constitute the entirety of his
formal training-a highly unorthodox foundation
for a painting career in Homer's time.
In order to appreciate Homer's independence,
(25) it's instructive to consider the importance of critical
acceptance to most painters in the nineteenth century.
Then, displaying paintings in major annual
exhibitions was the primary means for young
painters to show their work to the public and crit-
(30) ics. In order to be included in these exhibitions,
paintings had to be submitted to juries, panels of
painters who were usually older and quite conservative.
The juries awarded prizes to the canvases
they liked, decided which of the submitted paint-
(35) ings to include in the exhibits, and chose where to
display the works. Judges would often "punish"
young painters whose work did not please them by
rejecting their canvases or hanging them in the
darkest corners of the rooms. This system made
( 40) younger painters dependent on older ones; a
young painter clearly had a strong incentive to
paint in a way that would please conservative critics
and colleagues. Homer, however, neither sought
nor gained recognition in this stuffy world of aca­
( 45) demic painting, charting instead his own course.
When the American Civil War broke out, Harper's
made Homer an artist-correspondent, and his war
paintings, such as Prisoners at the Front (1866),
garnered him a national reputation. Like Civil War
(50) photographer Matthew Brady, Homer portrayed
the profound isolation of those in battle and the
dignity and courage of individual soldiers, rather
than the then-prevalent sensational action scenes
that glossed over the realities of war. After the war,
(55) Homer made his permanent residence at his family
home in Prout's Neck, Maine, far from the art world
of New York City. Aside from a few trips to Europe,
he remained in Maine and painted busily for the rest
of his life. Homer's subject matter was indigenously
(60) American-American seascapes, American workers,
and unsentimental American scenes in all their
natural power and dignity. This was a major contribution
to the arts in America, challenging the widely
held belief that the only art worthy of a drawing-
( 65) room or museum wall was must be European, or at
least reflect European subjects and styles.
Though many art critics paid little attention to
Homer during his lifetime, the art-buying public
and the younger generation of American painters
(70) greatly admired his work. He supported himself
comfortably on the sales of his oils and watercolors,
and younger painters like John Sloan and George
Luks embraced his realistic style and devotion to
American subjects. Thus, despite his dissociation
(75) from the professional art world, Homer had a great
influence on the future of American painting.
The Fog Warning (1885) offers a good example of
Homer in his prime. It depicts a fisherman alone in
his boat, pitted against the elements of the sea and
(80) the approaching storm, reliant on his own intelligence
and strength. It is for these powerful, severe
images of nature, particularly of the sea, that Homer
is best known. Robert Henri, a respected American
painter and disciple of Homer, described the power
(85) of these images: "Look at a Homer seascape. There
is order in it and grand formation. It produces on
your mind the whole vastness of the sea, a vastness
as impressive and uncontrollable as the sea itself."
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