Eugénie de Montijo, born May 5, 1826, in Granada, Spain, was the wife of Napoleon III and Empress of France from 1853 to 1870. This bust-length carte de visite, presented in a vignette oval format against a plain ground, was produced by A. Le Jeune at his Paris studio. Augustin Aimé Joseph Le Jeune operated at 22, rue de Choiseul beginning in 1864 as the successor to Sergei Levitsky at that address. The card's style and the studio's known active period place this portrait in the mid- to late 1860s.

The subject wears a dark, long-sleeved dress with a broad lace fichu draped across the shoulders and chest, fastened at the collar with a small floral brooch. Her hair is arranged in tight curls across the top and swept back to the sides, and she wears small earrings. Her expression is composed and direct, and her gaze angles slightly upward and to the left.

Eugénie was wife of Napoleon III and empress of France, who came to have an important influence on her husband's foreign policy. She acted as Regent during her husband's several absences, and he consulted her on important issues of State. After the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, she joined her family in exile in England and, after the death of her husband in 1873, continued to play a dominant role in Bonapartist political activities.

Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: "Empress Eugenie." Reverse bears the violet stamp: "A. Le Jeune, Photographe, Ancienne Mon. Levitsky" ("A. Le Jeune, Photographer, Former House of Levitsky"). Recto imprint reads: "Le Jeune, 22, rue de Choiseul."