Louise Michel (29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) is depicted in this albumen silver cabinet card in a striking pure profile view, her face turned sharply to the left against a plain, graduated studio ground. The format, with its dark-bordered mount and generous card stock, is consistent with professional studio production of the 1880s or 1890s. No photographer's imprint is visible on the mount.

The subject is rendered from the shoulders up, wearing a plain, high-collared dark garment fastened at the throat. Her hair is drawn back from the temples in loose, unruly waves and gathered at the nape in a braided or rolled chignon, several curling strands escaping near the ear. Her expression is composed and resolute, the profile angular and strongly modeled by directional studio light that leaves the far side of the face in shadow.

Michel was a French teacher, writer, poet, and anarchist who became a major figure in the Paris Commune, widely recognized as one of the most prominent women in that insurrection. Deported to New Caledonia after the Commune's defeat, she converted to anarchist thought there and returned to mainland France in 1880 under the Communard amnesty, becoming enormously popular among the working class. Freed from a subsequent imprisonment, Michel renewed her revolutionary campaign throughout France before living in London from 1886 to 1896, maintaining ties with revolutionary movements on the Continent.

Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: "Louise Michel" ("Louise Michel"), with additional partially legible notations and what appears to be the alphanumeric sequence "6/20.06."