François Marcellin Certain de Canrobert (1809–1895) is depicted here in a bust-length oval vignette, wearing his full dress military uniform and turned in three-quarter profile to the right. The carte-de-visite was produced by Augustin Aimé Joseph Le Jeune at his Paris studio, located at 22 rue de Choiseul, where Le Jeune succeeded Serguei Levitsky, and the reverse inscription dates the session to October 1869 at Saint-Cloud.

Canrobert wears a dark tunic with epaulettes and a high embroidered collar, a broad moiré grand cross sash crossing his chest from shoulder to hip, and a prominent cluster of decorations including what appears to be the Legion of Honor star pinned to his breast. His curling white hair and full mustache give him a commanding presence, and his expression in profile is composed and authoritative.

After serving as aide-de-camp to Louis-Napoléon and taking part in the coup d'état of December 1851, Canrobert commanded a division during the Crimean War and was twice wounded, eventually rising to Marshal of France and Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. A staunch supporter of Napoleon III, he became under the Third Republic one of the leading figures in the Bonapartist party.

The reverse bears the printed studio imprint "Le Jeune, Photographe Breveté de S.A. le Prince Impérial" (Le Jeune, Patented Photographer to His Highness the Imperial Prince) surmounted by an imperial eagle cartouche, with the notation "Ancienne Mson. Levitsky" (Formerly the House of Levitsky) at lower right, and the handwritten inscription "Maréchal Canrobert" along the left margin in pencil. The date "St. Cloud, Octobre 1869" (Saint-Cloud, October 1869) is printed in the center of the reverse.