The State Barge of Cardinal Richelieu on the Rhône

This canvas by **Paul Delaroche**, painted in 1829, evokes the return of a gravely ill Cardinal **Richelieu** from the south of France to Paris in the autumn of 1642. Carried in an immense litter hung with red and gold damask, fitted with a bed, a table and a chair, the dying minister had to travel by river on the Rhône and then by land; along the entire route, from Lyon to Digoin, doors, walls and sometimes entire upper floors of houses were demolished so that his closed litter could be carried directly into his bedchamber without his having to step out of it. This funereal journey, a few weeks before his death on 4 December 1642, illustrated to the very end the extent of the absolute power the cardinal had wielded over the kingdom.