Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 67 to 76. Ralph Earl was born into a Connecticut farm family in 1751. He chose early to become a painter and looked for what training was available in his home state an in Boston. Earl was one of the first American artists to paint landscapes. Among his first paintings were scenes from the Revolutionary war battles of Lexington and Concord In 1778 Earl ...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 67 to 76.

Ralph Earl was born into a Connecticut farm family in 1751. He chose early to become a painter and looked for what training was available in his home state an in Boston. Earl was one of the first American artists to paint landscapes. Among his first paintings were scenes from the Revolutionary war battles of Lexington and Concord In 1778 Earl went to London to study with Benjamin West for four years.

When Earl returned to the United States, he was jailed for fourteen months for outstanding debts. While still a prisoner, he painted portraits of some of New York City's most elegant society women and their husbands. After his release, he took up the trade of itinerant portrait painter, working his way through southern New England and New York. He didn't flatter his subjects, but his portrait show a deep understanding of them; perhaps he had sprung from the same roots.

Among Earl's most famous paintings is his portrait of Justice Oliver Ellsworth and his wife, Abigail. To provide counterpoint to the severity of the couple, he accurately details the relative luxury of the Ellsworth's interior furnishings. The view through the window behind them shows sun lit fields, well-kept fences, and a bend of the Connecticut River. One of Earl's paintings is something of anomaly. Reclining Hunter, which many years was attributed to Thomas Gainsborough, shows a well-dressed gentleman resting beneath a tree. In the foreground, he displays a pile of birds, the results of a day's hunt. The viewer can also see a farmer's donkey lying in the ground, another of the hunter's victims. This outrageously funny portrait couldn't have been commissioned - no one would have wanted to be portrayed in such an absurd way. However, this painting uncharacteristically shows Earl's wit as well as his uncommon technical skills.

Why does the author refer to Reclining Hunter as “something of anomaly”?