The Oath of the Jeu de Paume: A Founding Event of Democracy

Extract

[...] But it also allows him to show, a contrario, that the deputies took the oath of their own free will. To the right, an elderly man is depicted being helped by another deputy. The image of the unanimity of the nation is thus affirmed. The upper galleries allow the people attending the event to be distinguished. In the distance, the Sainte-Chapelle (although not visible from the room) is struck by lightning: the absolute monarchy and the structures of the Ancien Régime have been rendered obsolete. [...]

[...] The Oath of the Tennis Court - Jacques-Louis David (1792), Auguste Couder (1848) and Luc-Olivier Merson (1883) - A representation of democracy I. Presentation of the three authors (aesthetic positions, political positions, relationship to their time/to currents) - Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was a French painter. Through his early works, fruits of royal commission, he fully inscribed himself in the neo-classical current by paintings inspired by Antiquity, as shown for example The Oath of the Horatii (1784). SHis compositions are often severe allowing the painter to exalt the republican ideal and moral virtue. [...]

[...] The Oath of the Jeu de Paume experiences an eclipse as a founding event during the Second Empire, which emphasizes much more the Napoleonic glory as an element of national cohesion. From 1870, the return of the republican regime goes hand in hand with a new emphasis on the Oath of the Jeu de Paume. Between 1879 and 1882, the Minister of Public Instruction commissions five copies of the Oath of the Jeu de Paume to Couder. The engravings reproduce the composition until the first quarter of the 20th century. [...]

[...] Just like the figure of Marianne, whose busts multiply between 1870 and 1880, Merson's painting installed in 1883 in the Jeu de Paume hall in Versailles adds an element to the republican consciousness in construction. The Oath by Merson is still the one installed in the Jeu de Paume Room, which has been restored several times. Through these different representations, the work has made this event an integral part of the emergence of the Nation and democracy. Thus, during the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, President François Mitterrand delivered a speech in the very same Jeu de Paume room, standing under Merson's painting. [...]

[...] He also realized many genre paintings inspired by pre-romantic or romantic literature (scenes of Notre-Dame of Paris). - Luc-Olivier Merson Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920) was a French painter, illustrator, draftsman, and cartoonist. He won the Prix de Rome for painting in 1869. From that time on, Luc-Olivier Merson experienced growing success, receiving both private and public commissions. He asserted a classical style by reinterpreting profane or religious, ancient or medieval subjects. His work was diverse. The Third Republic entrusted him with official decorations: decoration of the Paris Palace of Justice, the Sacré-C?ur, the Opera-Comique staircase. [...]