Henri Rochefort, born Victor Henri de Rochefort-Luçay, was the French journalist and pamphleteer who founded La Lanterne in 1868, the publication that made his reputation as one of the fiercest critics of Napoleon III’s Second Empire. No photographer’s imprint is visible on this carte de visite; the sitter is identified on the reverse in period ink as “Henri Rochefort, Editor of the ‘Lantern,’ Paris.”<br><br>He is shown seated in profile at a draped table, bent over a sheet of paper with pen in hand as he writes, his other hand propped against his cheek in concentration. His dark curling hair is cut short, and he wears a dark frock coat with a loosely knotted bow at the collar. An inkstand and additional papers sit on the table beside him.<br><br>La Lanterne’s relentless satire of the imperial government led to its suppression within months of its first issue and a prison sentence for Rochefort, who continued his career through Le Mot d’Ordre and later L’Intransigeant. His open support for the Paris Commune resulted in his deportation to New Caledonia in 1873, from which he staged a widely publicized escape the following year before returning to France under the 1880 amnesty.<br><br>The reverse is inscribed in ink, “Henri Rochefort / Editor of the ‘Lantern’ / Paris,” with the archival notations “6/13/10,” “LOCBA1,” and “Eb.”