The Jeu de Paume Oath

The Tennis Court Oath (Le Serment du Jeu de paume) is an incomplete painting by Jacques-Louis David, painted between 1790 and 1794 and showing the titular Tennis Court Oath at Versailles, one of the foundational events of the French Revolution. Political reversals and financial difficulties meant that David was never able to finish the canvas, which measures 400 by 660 cm and is now in the Musée national du Château de Versailles. All the deputies are shown looking at Bailly, as a device to show their support of him. The only man to refuse to take the oath, Martin-Dauch, is shown in the lower right hand corner and provides a counterpoint to the general enthusiasm. David also drew all the faces in detail so that every figure was recognisable. Above are large windows with smiling figures of the public. In the 18th century, an oath had a sacred value and guaranteed a person would be faithful to their word, as in David's own The Oath of the Horatii. During the French Revolution, collective oaths like the tennis court oath were considered as a factor in national unity and national unanimity. The tennis court oath – pre-Romantic, near-unanimous, almost totally middle-class and with no popular violence – above all was considered the forerunner of the 1789 revolution and also showed that national sovereignty was made up of each individual's personal will. David's painting also portrays the monk Dom Gerle alongside the Protestant pastor Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne, symbolising a new era of religious tolerance. The wind blowing through the windows and billowing the curtains also symbolises the wind of Revolution blowing through France.