Jules Favre, inscribed on the reverse as “French Politician,” was the prominent republican lawyer and orator who served as vice-president and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of National Defense during the Franco-Prussian War. This carte de visite was produced by Eugène Thiébault’s Paris studio at 31 Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, the reverse carrying the succession imprint of Bacard Fils, Gendre et Successeur.<br><br>He is shown in half length, turned slightly from the camera, his curling white hair swept back from a high forehead and a full white beard covering his jaw and throat. He wears a dark coat over a waistcoat and loosely tied cravat, his expression composed and direct.<br><br>A celebrated defense lawyer who had represented the Lyon silk workers in 1834 and the assassin Felice Orsini in 1858, Favre became the leading voice of the republican opposition to Napoleon III before rising to national prominence after the Empire’s collapse. As foreign minister he met Bismarck at Ferrières in September 1870, negotiated the armistice ending the siege of Paris in January 1871, and later concluded the Treaty of Frankfurt that May, before his election to the Académie française and a later Senate seat.<br><br>The reverse is inscribed in pencil, “Jules Favre / French Politician,” over the printed studio imprint of Photographie Thiébault, 31 Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, 31, en face le théâtre du Gymnase, Bacard Fils, Gendre & Successeur, with the archival notations “3/02/07,” “COLAEZ,” and “Eb.”