Ernest Meissonier, the celebrated French painter of military and historical genre scenes, is portrayed in a commanding close bust CDV by A. Liebert, operating under the designation Photographie La Nuit, showing the artist in his later years with a full voluminous white beard spreading broadly across his chest and a heavy double-breasted coat buttoned over a white shirt. Meissonier faces the camera in a near-frontal pose, his expression serious and his white hair swept back, the striking contrast of his white beard and dark coat giving the image a sculptural quality. The tight bust framing places the full weight of his aged face and beard at center frame.

The Liebert studio's designation Photographie La Nuit indicates the use of artificial lighting, a technical distinction that the studio prominently advertised. The reverse bears the full Liebert imprint alongside a Maison Martinet stamp for Albert Hautecoeur, 73 Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, indicating secondary retail distribution, and a penciled inscription reading Meissonier / 1815-91.

Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891) was the most commercially successful French painter of the nineteenth century during his lifetime, renowned for his meticulously detailed small-scale paintings of Napoleonic military scenes and seventeenth-century Dutch-style genre subjects. His paintings commanded the highest prices of any living French artist and were collected across Europe and America. A founding member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur and remains among the defining figures of academic realist painting in France.

The reverse bears penciled inscriptions reading Meissonier and 1815-91 with the Liebert and Maison Martinet imprints and dealer code 3/9/09 / COLEAZ / GF.