Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, the Prince Imperial and only son of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, is portrayed here in a three-quarter seated pose by Le Jeune of Paris. The albumen carte de visite was produced at 22, rue de Choiseul, the studio Le Jeune inherited from the celebrated Russian-French photographer Sergei Levitsky when Levitsky closed his Paris operation in 1864, and Le Jeune carried the distinction of being official photographer to His Imperial Highness the Prince Imperial.

The young prince wears a dark double-breasted military tunic with a high standing collar, polished brass buttons arranged in two rows, and epaulette fittings at the shoulder. A cluster of decorations, including at least one medal with a suspension ribbon, is pinned to his left breast above a broad belt with an ornate clasp. His short, neatly parted hair and direct, composed gaze convey a studied composure beyond his apparent years.

Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte (1856-1879) was the recipient of a number of orders and decorations during his life. He was the sole legitimate heir to the Bonapartist imperial claim, and images produced at the Le Jeune studio formed part of the official visual record of the Second Empire court. The reverse imprint identifies the studio as successor to Levitsky and carries the crowned imperial warrant mark, situating this CDV firmly within the brief window of the studio's operation under the Second Empire, before the dynasty fell in 1870.

The reverse is inscribed in pencil: "Prince Imperiale" (Prince Imperial). The printed reverse reads: "Le Jeune, Photographe Breveté de S.A. Le Prince Impérial" (Le Jeune, Patented Photographer to H.I.H. the Prince Imperial), with the notation "Ancienne Maison Levitsky" (formerly the House of Levitsky), 22, rue de Choiseul, Paris.