Jenny Saville

‘The subject of the human body, it’s more than enough for a lifetime,’ British artist Jenny Saville (b. 1970) once said. Her confronting painings reflect ‘the sensuality of flesh’, and challenge conventional beauty standards – so much so that her work has even been censored in some countries. The National Portrait Gallery presents a chronological overview of her monumental nudes and charcoal drawings while exploring her deep connection to art history.

The Anatomy of Painting, widely considered Jenny Saville’s most significant museum exhibition to date, brings together 50 of her works spanning from the 1990s to the present. At the outset of her career, her focus was heavily rooted in anatomy—it was, in many ways, the essence of her artistic endeavor. She depicted massive, shifting expanses of flesh through paint, with skin tones blending pink, blue, and vivid red, rendered so sheer that veins appeared to pulse with life beneath the surface. These early works were so commanding and physically present that they evoked sculpture as much as painting. Here was the female form laid bare—raw and unembellished. At the time, Saville stated that her paintings were not created to teach or preach but to spark conversation: What defines beauty? Traditional notions often rely on a male perception of the female body. Saville’s women were beautiful in their uniqueness, celebrating individuality over convention.