Isabel Deprince is a renowned character in Spain’s comic literature, having worked as both an artist and an actress. She rose to prominence during the post-war era when Spain was confronted by a fiscally constrained regime, and her career spanned a period of nearly thirty years from the early 1960s to the end of the seventies, during which she established a reputation for bold, inventive, comic portrayals of almost everything Spanish. Her most famous works are “El deschildar” (also known as “The Girl from Aranjuez”) and “La policia romantica”. The former depicts Deprince as an unmarried, unhappy housewife living in the outskirts of Madrid who falls in love with an American serviceman, while the latter features Deprince as the glamorous lover of a Spanish Resistance fighter.
Isabel Deprince’s career spanned three generations, from her birth in Buenos Aires to her death at the age of fifty-four. She rose to prominence through her portrayal of women whose lives are touched by the tragic circumstances that surrounded them during those times. Though her films are remembered for their popularity amongst a popular generation, these efforts also helped to promote a more narrow concept of beauty. Instead of focusing on individualism and glamour, Deprince’s films tended to highlight the qualities of a woman as a person, rather than a physical attribute.
After a brief period working in the theater, Isabel Deprince concentrated her efforts on designing clothes for young people, starting out as an assistant to the well-known sociologist, Dr. Juan Parra. It was this work that would prepare her for her most successful years as an artist, contributing artwork to the magazine Salon International, and later creating several fashion lines. Although her years as a designer were less successful than her work in the theater, they did mark a beginning to a long and illustrious career in the art field. In terms of height, Deprince stands just slightly taller than your average woman today. Her height may be attributed to her having exceptionally good posture, which came from a combination of regular exercise, and the natural outward curve that all humans have. Her graceful face, combined with straight hair, makes it clear that the major change in her appearance was due to her profession, and not her looks.