Rejtan

I recently started listening to A History of Eastern Europe by The Great Courses. In Lecture 4, Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Ph.D. describes the first partition of Poland by the great powers of Europe. In 1773, Tadeusz Rejtan protested before the Polish parliament, which was set to approve of the partition. According to the story, Rejtan threw himself in the doorway, his chest bared, as the members of parliament attempted to leave the building. The moment was immortalized in Rejtan, or the Fall of Poland by Jan Matejko in 1866. Professor Liulevicius mentioned the painting in the lecture, so I thought I would check it out.

Pretty good painting. It captures the intensity of the moment well, and it makes me wish that I felt as strongly about something as Rejtan did about his homeland. The style reminds me of a few other paintings that I like by Ilya Repin.