This CDV is from Ernest Appert's celebrated "Crimes de la Commune" photomontage series, produced in the weeks immediately following the suppression of the Paris Commune of 1871 to document events for which no contemporary photographs existed. The scene depicted is the execution of hostages at La Roquette prison during the Bloody Week (La Semaine Sanglante) of May 1871, rendered as a composite albumen print on a standard carte-de-visite mount bearing the printed imprint of E. Appert, Photographe du Corps Législatif, 24 Rue Taitbout, Paris.

In the foreground, a firing squad of Federates stands with rifles raised, their backs to the viewer, facing six hostages aligned against the high stone prison wall. To the left, four men form an intermediate group, among them a bearded figure identified as Théophile Ferré. The hostages are robed in dark clerical dress, several with arms raised or hats in hand, set within a three-walled stone courtyard illuminated by a suspended lantern. Printed vertically on the recto in the lower right margin: "E. Appert, Phot. Déposé," and at the upper right: "Reproduction interdite" (reproduction forbidden).

The "Crimes de la Commune" series was the work of Ernest-Charles Appert, a Parisian photographer accredited to the Tribunal de la Seine, who photographed Communards imprisoned at Versailles and incorporated their portraits into staged photomontages. Appert employed the technique of photomontage to create the impression of having photographed real events, for explicitly propagandistic ends.

Inscribed in pencil in the upper left corner of the reverse, in six lines: "Darboy / Bonjean / Deguerry / Leclercq / Sabattain / Poncalan" (the names of the six hostages depicted). The reverse bears the full printed studio stamp of E. Appert, Peintre Photographe, Photographe du Corps Législatif et de la Magistrature, 24 Rue Taitbout, Paris, with four silver medal medallions dated 1853, 1855, 1859, and 1867.