Eugène Dupont, identified on the reverse as secretary of the International Workingmen’s Association, served as the General Council’s corresponding secretary for France from the organization’s founding in 1864, a post he held through its most turbulent years, including the Paris Commune. This carte de visite was produced by E. Appert’s Paris studio at 24 Rue Taitbout.

He is shown in bust length, his body angled away from the camera with his head turned to face it directly. His wavy hair is brushed back from a high forehead, and a long, waxed mustache curls out past the corners of his mouth. He wears a heavy double-breasted overcoat with a dark velvet collar over a waistcoat and narrow cravat, one arm resting on the back of a chair.

A trained instrument maker who had fought on the barricades of 1848 as a teenager, Dupont became one of the International’s earliest members in London, where he represented French sections at its Lausanne and Brussels congresses and sat on the General Council alongside Karl Marx. He remained in exile in London for the rest of his life, continuing to serve as a leading voice of the French section of the International through the 1870s.

The reverse is inscribed in pencil, “Eugene Dupont (1830-1902) / Secretary of International Working Men’s Association (Gen. Council of France during Paris Commune),” and again below, “J. Dupont, 1830-1902,” over the printed studio imprint of E. Appert, Peintre Photographe, 24 Rue Taitbout, Paris, with the archival notations “7/10/07,” “DOLAFB1,” and “Eb.”