Tennis Court Oath Tennis Court Oath On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath (), vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established". It was a pivotal event in the French Revolution. The Estates-General had been called to address the country's fiscal and agricultural crisis, but immediately after convening in May 1789, they had become bogged down in issues of representation—particularly, whether they would vote by head (which would increase the power of the Third Estate,
The Tennis Court Oath (David) Standards" and his 1814 "Leonidas at Thermopylae" were directly inspired by "The Tennis Court Oath". The work was also reprised and adapted by several artists from the late 18th century onwards. These included Auguste Couder in 1848 and Luc-Olivier Merson in 1883. In 1820, David ceded the engraving rights on Jean Pierre Marie Jazet's engraving of "The Tennis Court Oath" to Daniel Isoard de Martouret. The canvas itself was finally acquired in 1836 by the royal museums for the Louvre, where it was exhibited from 1880 onwards. The Tennis Court Oath (David) The Tennis Court Oath (French: "Le Serment du