Tadeusz Rejtan

Tadeusz Reytan (surname also alternatively spelled as Rejtan, and rarely Reyten; Belarusian: Тадэвуш Рэйтан; Lithuanian: Tadas Reitanas; 20 August 1742 – 8 August 1780) was a nobleman from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was a member of the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Nowogródek Voivodeship. Reytan is remembered for a dramatic gesture he made in September 1773, as a deputy of the Partition Sejm. There, Reytan tried to prevent the legalization of the first partition of Poland, a scene that has been immortalized in the painting Rejtan by Jan Matejko. He has been the subject of many other art works, and is a symbol of patriotism in Lithuania, Belarus and Poland. Despite his efforts, the partition of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was legalized soon afterwards.