Self Portrait

Jenny Saville is known for her monumental images of women, usually self portraits. She does not meet the usual public perception of the Young British Artists as she has dedicated her career to traditional figurative oil painting. Her painterly style has been compared to that of Lucian Freud, it is strongly pigmented and gives a highly sensual impression of the surface of the skin as well as the mass of the body. Self Portrait was painted in 1992, her debut year in the art world, and makes reference to some of her most important early pictures including Branded 1992 (sold Christie's, London, 16 February 2011, lot 4, for £1,497,250, the world auction record for the artist).