Question 78·Hard·Form, Structure, and Sense
In nineteenth-century American art, John Singer Sargent’s painting Portrait of Madame X commands attention. A study in elegance, a shock to conservative viewers, and a bold exploration of female agency, ______ challenged contemporary notions of propriety with its provocative pose.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For sentence-structure and modifier questions like this, first strip the sentence down to its core: find the main subject and verb that must go together. Then check that any introductory or middle phrases logically describe that subject and are placed right next to it. Finally, make sure pronouns (like it or its) have a clear, logical noun to refer to. Read each option in the full sentence; quickly eliminate choices that create fragments, shift the subject to the wrong thing, or make the pronoun reference unclear.
Hints
Find the main subject and verb
Focus on the second sentence. After the comma that follows the descriptive phrase (A study in elegance, a shock…, and a bold exploration…), what word or phrase should be the subject of the verb challenged?
Decide what is being described
Ask yourself: What is being described as a study in elegance, a shock to conservative viewers, and a bold exploration of female agency—the painting, the artist, or the exhibition (the Paris Salon)?
Check pronoun reference and sentence completeness
Look at its provocative pose at the end. Which choice makes its clearly and logically refer back to a singular thing, and also creates a complete sentence rather than a fragment or awkward structure?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the sentence structure
Look at the second sentence:
A study in elegance, a shock to conservative viewers, and a bold exploration of female agency, ______ challenged contemporary notions of propriety with its provocative pose.
The long phrase at the beginning (a study in elegance, a shock…, a bold exploration…) is describing something. After that descriptive phrase and the comma, we need the main subject of the sentence, followed by the verb challenged. Whatever goes in the blank must be that subject.
Decide what the subject must refer to
Ask: What is being called a study in elegance, a shock, and a bold exploration? It is clearly the painting Portrait of Madame X, not the artist, not the art exhibit location.
Also, the phrase its provocative pose at the end must logically refer back to the same subject in the blank. So the blank must:
- Name the painting as the subject
- Be a noun phrase, not just a place or a fragment
- Allow the verb challenged to follow directly and make sense.
Eliminate choices that create grammar or logic problems
Test each type of option against those requirements:
- An option that starts with the Paris Salon of 1884 makes the salon (the exhibition venue) the subject. Then its provocative pose and challenged would wrongly describe the salon, not the painting. This is illogical and confusing.
- An option that has Sargent first exhibited the painting at the Paris Salon of 1884 and makes Sargent the subject of challenged. That would mean Sargent challenged notions of propriety with its pose, but its is singular and would not refer to a person; it needs to refer to a thing like the painting. The sentence’s opening descriptive phrase is also clearly about the painting, not the painter.
- An option beginning with first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884, there has no clear noun as the subject after the introductory phrase; it reads like a fragment with a dangling modifier.
So those types of options do not give a clear, logical subject that matches its and fits the description at the start.
Choose the option that fits all requirements
The remaining option makes Sargent’s painting the subject and adds the exhibition detail as extra, nonessential information:
Sargent’s painting, first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884,
Now the full sentence reads:
A study in elegance, a shock to conservative viewers, and a bold exploration of female agency, Sargent’s painting, first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884, challenged contemporary notions of propriety with its provocative pose.
This is a complete, grammatical sentence with a clear subject (Sargent’s painting), a properly placed modifier (first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884), and a pronoun (its) that clearly refers to the painting. Therefore, the correct answer is “Sargent’s painting, first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884,” (choice B).