SAT OwlQuestion bank / Central Ideas and Details
Art historians often describe Impressionism as a revolt against the French Academy, the official institution that controlled major exhibitions in nineteenth-century Paris. Historian Colette Marchand offers a more complicated account. She notes that several leading Impressionists trained under academic painters, continued to submit work to the Academy's official Salon for years, and borrowed its techniques even while rejecting its preferred subjects. For Marchand, the movement's relationship to the Academy is better described as a negotiation than as a clean break.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Marchand argues that the Impressionists had no real disagreements with the Academy.
Marchand claims that the Academy secretly encouraged the Impressionist movement.
Marchand contends that the Impressionists' relationship with the Academy involved both rejection and continued engagement.
Marchand shows that the Impressionists won more prizes at the Salon than academic painters did.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
Marchand replaces the "revolt" story with a mixed picture: the Impressionists rejected the Academy's preferred subjects but trained with its painters, submitted to its Salon, and used its techniques. Calling the relationship a "negotiation" captures this mix of rejection and engagement, choice C.
Choice A overcorrects; the text says the Impressionists rejected the Academy's preferred subjects, so they did have real disagreements.
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