Jenny Saville. This painting by Jenny Saville is named Rosetta and is a portrait of a blind woman. My first reaction to the painting is the piece has a very anguished feel

Jenny Saville

This painting by Jenny Saville is named ‘Rosetta’ and is a portrait of a blind woman. My first reaction to the painting is the piece has a very anguished feel to it due to the angle the woman’s face is painted and the cold tones of the paint used. Through looking at the subject of the painting feelings of distress and anger are portrayed to me. The brush strokes are harsh and strong, this makes the painting appear unrealistic but increases the anger shown within the painting. The main colour within this painting is definitely the blue of the background, which contrasts well with the red of the lips, which seem to be the centre of the painting. The reds and pinks of the lips appear quite vivid in comparison to the rest of the painting. I like the way the painting appears as if it has lots of texture and unusualness, however this is not a painting that I would want in my home no matter the size, the coldness of it is too much. But to view this piece for its artistically portrayed emotions makes me like it, it is a good example of how the way you paint something and the tone of the colours used can really have an impact.

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Jenny Saville was born in Cambridge in 1970 and is well known for her large scale paintings and images of the unusual human body. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art between 1988 and 1992 and then attended the University of Cincinnati after being awarded a six month scholarship there. At this university Saville says she saw lots ‘Lots of big women. Big white flesh in shorts and T-shirts.’ These woman had a physicality that interested Saville due to her liking Pablo Picasso’s work. At the end of her post graduation her entire senior show was purchased by Charles Saatchi and commissioned Saville for the next two years. During this time Saville attended plastic surgery operations for inspiration. This insinuates a more gory side to Saville’s paintings as this shows a lot of her work was inspired by peoples bodies being cut open and sewn back up.

Since being commissioned by Saatchi Saville has continued with her work on the female body but has also strayed into work on transvestites and transsexuals. She works mainly in oil pastel but has published sketches and documents including surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, deformity correction, disease states and transgender patients. A lot of her work is very unorthodox as her subjects are not normally the ones that get painted. It is interesting that Saville is so fascinated with imperfect and controversial bodies. Her work has also appeared on the covers of two Manic Street Preachers albums, one of which placed second in the 2009 poll for Best Vinyl.

‘Jenny Saville’s monumental paintings wallow in the glory of expansiveness. Jenny Saville is a real painter’s painter. She constructs painting with the weighty heft of sculpture. Her exaggerated nudes point up, with an agonizing frankness, the disparity between the way women are perceived and the way that they feel about their bodies. One of the most striking aspects of Jenny Saville’s work is the sheer physicality of it. Jenny Saville paints skin with all the subtlety of a Swedish massage; violent, painful, bruising, bone crunching.’ – Saatchi Gallery.

After researching Jenny Saville I found I am a lot more interested in the background information of all her pieces and they seem to have large stories to them. Saville’s fascination with unusual bodies is interesting, and the way she portrays them is very different.

I responded to the painting ‘Rosetta’ by Saville by painting a copy of it with acrylics.