A striking three-quarter profile portrait of Georges Cavalier, the French journalist, playwright, mining engineer, and Communard known by his nickname "Pipe-en-Bois" (Wooden Pipe). The carte de visite was produced by E. Appert, the Paris studio active from 1862 and closely associated with documentation of the Paris Commune era and its political figures. Appert specialized as a portraitist of political personalities across all factions. The card's reverse bears the additional imprint of Etienne Carjat & Cie at 10, rue Notre-Dame de Lorette, Paris, where Carjat operated from 1869 through 1884, suggesting the mount was repurposed or the portrait circulated through Carjat's establishment.

Cavalier is depicted in three-quarter profile facing left, wearing a dark frock coat over a buttoned waistcoat, with a white shirt and dark cravat visible at the collar. His full beard and thick, swept-back hair are rendered in sharp detail against a plain tonal ground, and his gaze is directed into the distance with a composed, slightly distant expression. The front of the mount carries the printed legend "E. APPERT, PHOT. / Déposé." alongside the copyright notice "Reproduction / interdite."

Georges Louis Marie Alexandre Cavalier, known as Pipe-en-Bois, was born in Tours on January 27, 1842, and died in Paris on October 25, 1878; a graduate of the École Polytechnique, he became an engineer of mines. He served as Gambetta's private secretary during the Siege of Paris in 1870, was appointed by the Commune as inspector of public gardens and director of the city's parks and promenades, was imprisoned by the Versaillais at Satory, tried before a War Council, and condemned to deportation to New Caledonia.

The reverse is inscribed in pencil at the top: "Cavalier / Type en bois" ("Cavalier / Wooden type," a play on his nickname), and along the left margin: "George Cavalier / Communard." The Carjat & Cie studio stamp reads: "Au Rez-de-Chaussée / Nouvelle Photographie / Etienne Carjat & Cie / Rue Notre Dame / de Lorette / 10 / Maison Fondée en 1867 / Médailles / Londres 1861 / Paris 1863–1864 / Berlin 1865 / Exposition Universelle 1867." A dealer's notation "6/8/07 / L0HGG2 / Eb" appears at the bottom.