Sketch of The Tennis Court Oath, Jacques-Louis David, 1792 Representatives of the Third Estate, the lowest division of pre-revolutionary French society—the commoners— met on the Jeu de Paume, the tennis court in Versailles, in defiance an order to disperse from the king, Louis XVI, on June 20, 1789. Here, they took the titular oath not to disband until a new constitution was adopted. It was one of the key events of the French Revolution. The painting, finished in 1794, hangs in the Louvre. Built in 1686, Le Salle de Jeu de Paume, has been a museum since 1880.
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