Out of the 320 or so known oil paintings by Matejko, it is Rejtan which still gives rise to strong emotion today. The piece was much talked about already in the times of its creation. Rejtan. The Fall of Poland (1866) was one of the most controversial paintings of its day. It provoked discussions and arguments, was often copied and its composition and message were used also in contemporary times as symbols of important ideals and disputes.The canvas, finished in November 1866 by the then twenty-eight year old painter, was exhibited in the Kraków Science Society in the same month. The work aroused much controversy as the discussion about it took place shortly after the defeat of the January Uprising in an atmosphere of brooding over the reasons of the insurgency’s failure. The artist, who consistently realised his artistic-ideological programme initiated with the painting Skarga’s Sermon into why Poland had lost its independence and wanted to express his opinion on the dispute. Matejko’s secretary Marian Gorzkowski wrote that when the painter was beginning work on Rejtan (the painting’s original title was to be The Fall of Poland) his intention was to change the "the past, low moral standards of our society and the negligence of duties in families and governmental offices". However the artist’s contemporaries didn’t understand this message.