Jules Favre (1809–1880) was a French statesman and lawyer whose career placed him at the center of France's most turbulent political decades. This albumen CDV was produced at the Paris studio of Eugène Thiébault, whose son-in-law Paul Bacard took over the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle address in 1868, signing photographs as "Photographie Thiébault, Bacard Fils, Successeur," which places this portrait in the late 1860s or early 1870s.

The bust-length portrait shows Favre in three-quarter view, his gaze directed slightly upward and to the left. He wears a dark frock coat over a white shirt with a loosely knotted bow cravat, and his full, full-cheeked beard is dense at the chin and sides, with the crown of his head noticeably bald. The plain, tonal background and tight crop focus all attention on his face and bearing.

Favre was a resolute opponent of Napoleon III and a negotiator of the Treaty of Frankfurt that ended the Franco-German War. On September 4, 1870, he became vice president under General Louis-Jules Trochu in the Government of National Defense and simultaneously served as minister of foreign affairs, making him one of the most consequential French public figures of the era.

The reverse bears the printed studio imprint "Photographie Thiébault, 31 Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, 31 / Bacard Fils, Gendre et Successeur" and is inscribed in pencil: "Jules Favre / French Politician," with the additional notations "3/02/07," "COLAEZ," and "Eb."