Even thus he cannot make her out (Ni asi la distingue), plate 7 from "Los Caprichos"

In the pictureIn the center, a young woman with a black mantilla falling from her head to her shoulders and a dark lace skirt stands with her eyes lowered and a hand at her breast. The man on the left, his hair tied back, bends forward and pushes his face right up to hers, holding something like spectacles to his eye with one hand to peer at her. In his other hand he holds a hat. Behind them at the right, a woman in light clothing sits on a chair with a fan and looks our way. The sky is engraved with horizontal hatching; "7." is at the upper right, and "Ni asi la distingue." is at the bottom.

BackgroundThe title means "Even thus he cannot make her out." The man comes nose to nose and even holds up a lens, but still cannot see what kind of woman she is. A contemporary commentary on the series is said to observe, in effect, that what he needs to recognize her is not spectacles but judgment. The plate mocks both the man taken in by appearances and the woman who makes use of him. The Met's record lists the technique as etching, aquatint, and drypoint, unlike plates 12 and 17, which also list burnishing and burin. The plate measures 19.7×14.8cm.

Puzzle tipThe tones fall into three masses. The woman's black mantilla and skirt are the darkest, while the man's light coat and the white dress of the seated woman at the right are light. Start where the woman's face under the mantilla meets the man's profile, and the center will stand. Set the bottom with the vertical posts of the chair at the right and the band of shadow on the floor, and fill the hatched sky and the blank paper last. 24 or 48 pieces is a good fit.