Navigation
Accessibility Login Buy tickets Search
Buy tickets

Search

Previous Next

Serment Du Jeu De Paume, A Versailes Le 20 Juin 1789



Date:
1791 - 1794
Object Number:
M.2022.27
Creator
Jean Louis (the younger) Prieur (artist)
Production notes
Drawn and designed by Prieur
Material
paper
Size
Framed Image Ht x W: 42.5 x 45.5 cm Image Only Ht x W: 18 x 23
Digital reference
V & A description of same object in their collection
Object name
print
Object category
pictures

Description

Framed, glazed and mounted engraved print. Scene inside a real tennis court. Large group of men all facing and pointing towards a man standing on a desk. Four men stand/sit on the covered viewing corridor and men and women can be seen watching from the uppermost netted balcony. Title and production details below. The picture depicts the formal announcement of the French revolution made in the Royal Tennis Court near the Palace of Versailles on 20 June 1789. The Announcement was a pledge signed during a meeting of the Estates-General of 20 June 1789.
Read more

Display caption

This print is an illustration to a group of prints depicting events during the French Revolution. The prints with accompanying text were originally sold separately between 1791-4, then were issued as a set of three bound volumes 'Collection complète des tableaux historiques de la révolution française' in 1804. The authors of the work were all actively involved in the early stages of the revolution, as was the artist of this print, Jean-Louis Prieur. This scene shows the taking of the ’Tennis Court Oath’ in the early days of the revolution. The Three Estates (Clergy, Nobility and Public) were to meet to discuss solutions to the many problems threatening France, such as bankruptcy, famine and gross inequality in wealth. Representatives of the Third Estate found the assembly rooms locked by orders of the King. Seeing this as a despotic act, they gathered in a nearby tennis court and made an oath not to separate until a constitution had been declared. Among those present were Mirabeau, Sieyes, Robespierre and Dr Guillotin. Making such an declaration in the King’s absence was a defiance of royal authority and became the first step towards eventual Republicanism.
Read more
Related objects:
TN.2009.1343 : Serment Du Jeu De Paume, Versailles 20th Juin 1789
AX.2022.4 : Jeu De Paume de Paris
M.2022.28 : Serment Du Jeu De Paume