<p>[Although the English artist William Blake never having painted portraits, he regarded them] as merely mechanical reproductions that, despite their popularity, lacked true creativity.</p>
<p>The correct answer is to replace the bracketed part with 'The English artist William Blake never painted portraits because he regarded them'.</p>
<p>Is it just me or is this a stupid answer? Though correct grammatically, it changes the meaning of the sentence, does it not?</p>
<p>It’s correct. The word “although” kind of changes the mood from positive to negative or vice versa (you don’t use “although” in the above sentence). It’s hard to explain, so I’ll show you some examples:</p>
<p>Correct: Although I have been to the movies every week for the past year, I still have not seen Avatar.</p>
<p>Incorrect: Although I have been to the movies every week for the past year, I always buy popcorn.</p>
<p>yeah isn’t that what I am saying? It changes the sentence, so why would that be correct? Or am i still not understanding</p>
<p>Basically, you don’t use “although” in that context.</p>
<p>The “Although the English artist William Blake never having painted portraits, he regarded them,” is incorrect (if I’m not mistaken) because of the “never having painted portraits” part. It would be better if “having” were removed.</p>
<p>In addition, the “although” doesn’t make perfect sense with the context of the sentence. As rspence said, “although” changes the mood of the sentence so it’s closer to, “although something, then something unexpected.” With spence’s example that’s, “Although I’ve been to the movies every week for the past year, I still haven’t seen Avatar.” The latter part of the sentences is unexpected for someone who does the first part of the sentence, so the word “although” is warranted.</p>
<p>However in the original sentence with William Blake, the latter part of the sentence is an explanation as to why William Blake never painted portraits, so the word “although” isn’t correct. “Although” would work better if it was like, “Although he never painted portraits, he viewed them with fascination and saw them as wonderful pieces of art.”</p>
<p>Even though answers may not always seem 100% correct, if you are not sure, just choose the best answer of the choices you are given. The correction does change the mood of the sentence slightly, but it is also grammatically correct.</p>
<p>[Although the English artist William Blake never having painted portraits, he regarded them] as merely mechanical reproductions that, despite their popularity, lacked true creativity.</p>
<p>The issue with this sentence is not with “Although”, it’s with the gerund phrase “having painted portraits”. A verb form of some action is needed instead. The apparent intent of the sentence is for “although” to function as a subordinating conjunction to connect the dependent clause "the English artist … " to the independent clause “he regarded …”.</p>
<p>A simple variant of the intended sentence (which still uses although) is: </p>
<p>Although William Blake never painted portraits, he regarded them as reproductions not worthy of his talent.</p>
<p>Viewing SAT writing questions from the perspective of intended meaning is usually not the best path to the correct answer. It leads to over thinking and second guessing and it takes a great deal of time. Best is to first focus on the grammar.</p>
<p>The SAT occasionally tests coordination for logic. “Although” doesn’t work because the ideas are not in contrast with each other. That’s what the Q is testing.</p>