Universidad de Zaragoza, 2025
Pioneras Ilustradas II is an exhibition that pays tribute to the first women who made their way into the University of Zaragoza during the early decades of the 20th century. Fifteen illustrators from Aragón were invited to bring some of these remarkable women back into the spotlight.
I was given the task of portraying Isabel León Pueyo (Valladolid, 1900), one of the first female graduates in Chemistry (1922). Her academic record was outstanding: six top marks, five with honors, and two very high grades. Although little information or photographic material about her has survived, I was lucky enough to consult the original documents from her student file.
For the first illustration, I wanted to situate Isabel within the discipline she studied. I drew inspiration from chemical reactions and molecular structures of organic compounds discovered just a few years earlier. In particular, I worked from an exercise found at the end of her record: a laboratory practice where she attempted to obtain crystallized silver nitrate from silver coins. For the second illustration, I imagined her in the university setting of the time—its grand lecture hall, the classrooms, and at her own study desk, where I pictured her immersed in her work.
