Landscape

One half of the notorious Kray twins, Reggie Kray was sentenced to life imprisonment along with his brother, Ronnie, in 1969. This brightly-coloured landscape was painted in the summer of 1972 while Reggie was in Parkhurst prison. It was sent to Billy Webb, who went on to publish 'Running With the Krays: My Life in London's Gangland', and is referred to in letters between the two men.

Two entrepreneurs with no regard for authority (they were both dishonourably discharged from the military), the Kray twins were an influential team in the criminal London underworld before their arrest. Along with his brother, Reggie was tried and convicted of murder at the end of the 1960s. Serving more than thirty years of his life sentence, Reggie Kray was released in 2000 on compassionate grounds and died shortly afterwards.