Charles Cousin-Montauban, Comte de Palikao (1796–1878) is portrayed in this albumen CDV in a three-quarter standing pose, wearing full French general's dress uniform. The Mayer brothers, formally associated as photographers since 1850, founded a partnership in 1855 with Pierre-Louis Pierson, and the mount's front imprint reads "L. Pierson, Phot." with the printed legend "Déposé / Garanti d'après nature" (Deposited / Guaranteed from life), placing this portrait in the period after Pierson assumed sole proprietorship of the firm. Napoleon III came to prefer their studio, and Pierson created numerous portraits of the French Imperial family during the apex of the Second Empire.

The general wears a dark tunic with fringed epaulettes at both shoulders and a broad diagonal sash across his chest. Three decorations are visible on his breast, including a large star and a floriated cross consistent with grand-cross insignia; he holds a pair of white gloves in his right hand and rests his left at his side. His white hair and heavy mustache, together with his bearing, convey the authority of senior command.

Cousin-Montauban served as Prime Minister of France from 9 August to 4 September 1870 under Napoleon III, and held the post of Minister of War concurrently. He claimed to have raised Marshal MacMahon's force at Châlons to 140,000 men, to have created three new army corps, 33 new regiments and 100,000 gardes mobiles, and to have organized the capital's defenses, all within the span of his brief ministry.

The reverse bears a pencil inscription reading "Gal Cte de Palikao / ministre de la Guerre" (General Count de Palikao / Minister of War), along with the printed studio mark of Pierson, sole proprietor of the house of Mayer and Pierson, Photographers to His Majesty the Emperor, Boulevard des Capucines 3, Paris.