Jean-Louis Pindy (1840–1917), anarchist and Communard, is depicted here in a three-quarter-length studio portrait on an albumen carte-de-visite produced by Charles Reutlinger at his celebrated Paris establishment. Pindy held the rank of colonel and served as governor of the Hôtel de Ville during the Paris Commune. Charles Reutlinger founded one of the most important photographic studios in Paris in 1850, and the verso's award medallions place this card after the studio's first-prize recognition at the Exposition Universelle of 1867.

Pindy stands in a dark, double-breasted military tunic with gilt sleeve braid, shoulder rank tabs, and a single button at the collar. A sash crosses his chest and terminates at the hip in a pair of fringed tassels, while he holds a glove in his lowered right hand. He wears a flat-topped kepi with a woven band and looks directly at the camera with a composed, mustachioed expression. A barley-twist-legged side table at his left supports a small stack of books.

Pindy ordered the burning of the Hôtel de Ville during the final days of the Commune and escaped to Switzerland after its fall. A carpenter-joiner by trade, he had become a member of the First International and distinguished himself in labor organizing before the Commune. The Musée Carnavalet holds an example of this same Reutlinger CDV of Pindy in its Paris Commune photographic archive, confirming the identification.

The reverse bears a pencil inscription reading "Pindy / comme dobé de bille" (approximately "Pindy / as governor of the [Hôtel de] Ville"), along with the printed studio imprint: "CH. REUTLINGER / PHOTOGRAPHE / 21, Boulevard Montmartre, 21 / PARIS," and the awards legend "PREMIER PRIX / Exposition Universelle 1867," with additional medal references to Paris 1867, Berlin 1866, and Hambourg 1868. The front mount reads "CH. REUTLINGER, PHOT." with the printed notations "Déposé" and "Garanti d'après nature."