Rejtan (painting)

Rejtan is an 1866 oil on canvas painting by the Polish artist Jan Matejko, now in the Royal Castle in Warsaw. It depicts Tadeusz Rejtan's protest against the First Partition of Poland at the 1773 Partition Sejm, showing Rejtan in the lower right of the composition trying to physically block other delegates from leaving the chamber to stop ratification of the territorial demands of Russia, Prussia and Austria. Matejko used the techniques of academic history painting, placing Rejtan at the centre with a theatrical gesture and surrounding him with figures representing complicity, including future members of the Targowica Confederation and the Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin, sacrificing some historical accuracy for dramatic effect. First shown in 1866, the painting scandalised aristocratic families who saw their ancestors depicted as traitors, was later acquired by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and returned to Poland in 1920 after purchase by the Polish government, apart from a wartime removal by Nazi looters. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/