Louise Michel (1830–1905), the celebrated figure known as "La Vierge rouge" (the Red Virgin) for her central role in the Paris Commune of 1871, is depicted here in an albumen silver carte-de-visite. Appert, a Parisian portrait photographer, gained exclusive access to a makeshift prison at Versailles and made portraits of individual prisoners in 1871, of which this is a prime example. Accredited to the Tribunal de la Seine and sometimes cited as a forerunner of bertillonage, he photographed Communards incarcerated in Versailles and issued their portraits as cartes-de-visite.

Michel is shown seated in a three-quarter view against a plain studio backdrop, her dark hair loosely gathered and falling at the sides of her face. She wears a dark, long-sleeved dress fastened down the front with a column of round buttons and trimmed at the collar with a narrow ruffle, with a small brooch or ribbon ornament pinned to the chest. Her arms are crossed at the wrists and rest on a surface before her, and her expression is direct and composed, projecting the quiet defiance that Appert's prison portraits are described as conveying, showing inmates oscillating between defiance and the quest for respectability.

Appert specialized as a portraitist of political personalities of all persuasions and worked for the Ministry of Justice as an expert attached to the Seine tribunal, serving as a judicial photographer. He issued many of the Communard portraits as cartes-de-visite and also integrated their faces into a series of propagandistic photomontages entitled "Crimes of the Commune." Michel herself was subsequently tried, convicted, and deported to New Caledonia, becoming one of the most iconic figures of the French left.

The recto imprint reads "E. Appert, Phot. Expert. Déposé. / Reproduction interdite." (E. Appert, Expert Photographer. Registered. / Reproduction prohibited.) The verso carries the studio imprint identifying Appert as "Photographe du Corps Législatif" and "Photographe de la Magistrature," operating at 24 Rue Taitbout, Paris, and lists silver medals for 1853, 1855, 1859, and 1867. Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: "Melle Michel / Martisse do ferre" (Miss Michel / [second phrase unclear]).