According to the passage, explanations of artistic production based on determinism were unthinkable to Watteau admire...

Jay-Etter on January 25, 2022

The relevant section in the passage (which I found by skimming for determinism) is L38-50. The passage states that "such determinism was unthinkable: the artist was born in a Flemish town only six years after it first became part of France, yet Watteau was quintessentially French. As one patriotic French biographer put it...."

So we're looking for something to do with national/cultural identity - they didn't want Watteau to not be French. A key word here is also describing the biographer discussing the topic as "patriotic".

A) Way off - not concerned with people not liking his work anymore
B) way off - nothing to do with purchases by foreigners
C) Possible, it gets at French national identity.
D) Nope, doesn't get at what we want
E) also looks good

So how to distinguish between C and E.
C) Too strong. We aren't saying that Watteau would have to be EXCLUDED from French art - because after all he was French. We're just saying determinism would influence his cultural identity. Also, we don't know that this would be the case for many other artists besides Watteau.
E) we're left with this one, and it still looks good. If determinism was right, Watteau would be more Flemish than French, but his admirers love to think of him as typical French, so they don't want to accept determinism.