The painter Peter Brandon never dated his works, and their chronology

Question

The painter Peter Brandon never dated his works, and their chronology is only now beginning to take shape in the critical literature. A recent dating of a Brandon self-portrait to 1930 is surely wrong. Brandon was 63 years old in 1930, yet the painting shows a young, dark-haired man—obviously Brandon, but clearly not a man of 63.    1 
 Which of the following, if justifably assumed, allows the conclusion to be properly drawn?

A. There is no securely dated self-portrait of Brandon that he painted when he was signifcantly younger than 63.
B. In refraining from dating his works, Brandon intended to steer critical discussion of them away from considerations of chronology.
C. Until recently, there was very little critical literature on the works of Brandon.
D. Brandon at age 63 would not have portrayed himself in a painting as he had looked when he was a young man.
E. Brandon painted several self-portraits that showed him as a man past the age of 60.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

The passage concludes that the self-portrait must be improperly dated and cites as proof the discrepancy between Brandon’s actual age (63) in 1930 and his youthful appearance in the painting. The assumption is that a self-portrait depicts the artist’s current appearance; therefore,  Choice D  is the correct answer.

Since the argument does not depend on the existence or absence of other self-portraits,  Choices A  and  E  are incorrect. The argument also does not depend upon Brandon’s motivations for not dating his works or upon the lack of critical literature about his work, so  Choices B  and  C  are incorrect.

Answer: D

The painter Peter Brandon never dated his works, and their chronology

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