Xelia. Beauty in the illustrations of Elia Martínez Fernández

Abstract

Xelia, pseudonym of Elia Martínez Fernández Torregrosa Salazar, was an illustrator who worked for some of the most important publications of the 50s and 60s of the last century. As a freelancer, she undertook assignments from a vast number of publications and advertising agencies. Especially important were the works she carried out for the newspaper ABC, the magazine Chicas and the collection Biblioteca de Chicas. In the advertising field, shestood out for her illustrations for Perfumes Parera, Publicidad Ribó and Elios and the Dardo agency, to whose team of illustrators she joined in the sixties. In thesubsequent decades, already distanced from the profession, she pursued a discreet artistic career. This article explores the biography and the most notable contributions of a prolific artist who, through her idealised portrayal of women, contributed to shaping the imagery of beauty of women in the fifties and sixties.