Ernest Picard (1821–1877) is portrayed in this albumen carte de visite, a three-quarter bust facing slightly left against a plain studio ground. The imprint on the front reads "Thiébault, Bd Bonne Nouvelle, 31," identifying the studio as Photographie Thiébault at that Paris address; the reverse confirms the full imprint "Photographie Thiébault, Bacard Fils, Gendre & Successeur," placing the image after 1868, when Paul Bacard took over the address. The mount carries a thin blue border typical of French CDV production of the late Second Empire period.

Picard is shown with abundant curly hair swept back from a broad forehead, a short full beard, and a dark bow tie worn over a white collar. His dark frock coat with wide lapels is characteristic of bourgeois Parisian dress of the 1860s, and his slightly upward gaze lends the portrait a quality of composed authority.

Elected to the Corps législatif in 1858, Picard became one of the group known as Les Cinq, opposition republicans who challenged imperial policy from the floor of the legislature. He founded the weekly democratic journal L'Électeur libre in 1868, and from 4 September 1870 served as minister of finance in the Government of National Defence. In January 1871 he accompanied Jules Favre to Versailles to negotiate the capitulation of Paris, and subsequently became minister of the interior under Adolphe Thiers.

Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: "Ernest Picard / French Politician." Additional notations in pencil read "3/02/07," "COLBXZ," and "Eb."