The Punishment of Richard Roose
1125 x 210 x 5cm
Oil, Acrylic, Wax, Sand on Canvas
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I finished this painting earlier this year, it depicts Richard Roose. A cook in the household of the Bishop of Rochester who was publicly executed in Smithfield, Clerkenwell in 1532 for high treason.

Roose had added poison to a type of stew intended for the Bishop and his household. The Bishop however did not eat food that evening. Seventeen others did and became seriously ill, with two dying.

King Henry VIII, who was known to have a phobia of being poisoned, reacted swiftly and severely and a new law was passed which made murder by poisoning a form of high treason, punishable by boiling alive. This punishment was symbolically chosen to match the crime. 

Roose was walked from the tower of London through the streets to Clerkenwell picking up public audiences steadily along the route.

Eventually Roose met his fate cooking in boiling water for over two hours, in a brutal, drawn-out process. His blood curdling screams were reportedly heard across London causing great distress to some spectators.

We feel disconnected to the medieval period and the behaviour of Henry VIII and his predecessors. We invented IPhones and thankfully no longer boil people alive in front of thousands of spectators. 

It is true however that today’s governments and regimes still use extreme, highly public violence and dark, ironic psychological cruelty to terrorise the public and crush dissent opposing them just as Henry VIII once did.

The heavily textured ground of the painting and sheer scale of the work mimics wall painting and places the viewer inside the scene at life size scale, drawing comparisons with our position today in society and that of 500 years ago.

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Currently on display  at The Saatchi Gallery, Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 4RY

August 7th - September 12th 2026

Open daily 10am - 6pm

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