"The Anatomy of Painting": A Passage Through Jenny Saville’s Fleshscape

Living form is random, though it can be experienced intentionally. Artist Jenny Saville specializes in figurative paintings that explore anatomy through epic proportions of raw physicality. She became established in the 1990s after her degree show at the Glasgow School of Art. Her work is exhibited in The Anatomy of Painting in London, presently through 7 September 2025. The exhibition is mostly oil paintings, but her displayed work ranges through charcoal drawings. 

Drift by Jenny Saville, 2020-2022, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery 

 Veering off a desire path in the National Portrait Gallery, Saville’s work is glorified on white walls in a quiet atmosphere that isn’t oppressive. It has the respectfully hushed silence of a nursery filled with awed whispers, much like those of churchgoers threatened with the promise of an echo. Despite this stillness, the collection moves before you as pain in slow motion. 

Propped, oil on canvas, 1992, private collection 

 Saville’s passion for the process of art is as meaningful as the finished piece. She delicately balances appreciation for humanity and art, able to be successful in her composition while portraying the supple acceptance of existence that lurks beneath the epidermis of each subject. 

One Out of Two (Symposium) by Jenny Saville, charcoal and pastel on canvas, 2016, National Portrait Gallery 

Her strokes are largely large, though refining to their finest point in the eyes. They are in focus, while the rest of the face becomes piled swatches if observing closely. Saville borders abstraction, in a way that is contemporary and recognizable through her use of layering colors.  

Reverse by Jenny Saville, oil on canvas, 2003, National Portrait Gallery 

 The exhibition flows chronologically, from self-portraits (“loaning her body to herself”), to intimate portraits, to maternal figures, to piles of flesh where boundaries between bodies become blurred. Her paintings are so large-scale that looking up at them to experience them in entirety mimics approaching the bare feet of a liturgical marble statue. Vast bodies are haloed from above by warm accent lighting, drawing you in until encompassment. The background leaks through the eyes of each soul; the underpainting is a subtle (though impactful) aura that you must work to recognize. 

 Stare by Jenny Saville, oil on canvas, 2004-2005, National Portrait Gallery 

I chose to experience each piece individually: beginning nearly pressed upon the opposite wall, fully grasping the image, then approaching to the point where I wonder if Saville stood in my footsteps to paint that stroke. Although your eye will be drawn to those before you, make sure you rip your gaze away and devour each corner, and move onto the next when you must.  

Eve by Jenny Saville, oil, acrylic, and pastel on linen, 2022-2023, National Portrait Gallery  

Attempt not to lose yourself, for I left the museum not quite sure where I ended, and the paint began. 

About The Anatomy of Painting – Jenny Saville 

Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting is a temporary exhibition tracking Saville’s development throughout her career. It is installed at the National Portrait Gallery, London (St. Martin’s Place, WC2H 0HE), which houses the most expansive portrait collection in the world, primarily of influence to the British. The show runs from 20 June to 7 September 2025, and tickets and be purchased via the NPG website (npg.org.uk). It is worth it.