Augustin Joseph Verdure, born March 5, 1825, in Remilly-Wirquin (Pas-de-Calais), was a schoolteacher, socialist militant under the Second Empire, and elected member of the Paris Commune of 1871. This albumen print CDV presents a three-quarter bust portrait of remarkable presence, produced circa 1870 to 1871 with no photographer's imprint visible on the front mount. The hand-signed surname "Verdure" appears in ink at the lower margin of the recto, an unusually personal flourish for a carte-de-visite of this period.

The subject faces the camera with a direct, unguarded expression, his voluminous dark beard and full mustache framing a strong jaw, and wire-rimmed pince-nez glasses resting at the bridge of his nose. He wears a dark frock coat over a white shirt with a broad, loosely knotted cravat bearing a small decorative pin at its center. Thick, wavy dark hair falls behind his ears, and the pose is rendered against a plain, unadorned studio ground.

Dismissed from his teaching post under the Second Empire for his republican convictions, Verdure became an accountant, joined the International Workingmen's Association, and served as cashier for Henri Rochefort's radical newspaper, La Marseillaise. On March 26, 1871, he was elected to the Council of the Commune by the 11th arrondissement and served on the Commission for Public Education. Arrested during the Bloody Week, he was condemned to deportation to a fortified enclosure in New Caledonia, where he died in 1873.

Reverse inscribed in pencil: "Verdure" (top), "Augustin Verdure / Paris Commune" (center), and the notations "6/26/10 LOEFD/ Eb" (lower margin).