Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1808–1873), is depicted in this albumen carte de visite in a three-quarter bust presentation set within a vignette oval. The studio imprint on the front reads "Le Jeune, 22, rue de Choiseul," the Paris address at which Augustin Aimé Joseph Le Jeune began operations in 1864 as the direct successor to Sergei Levitsky, the first foreign studio to be granted the title of court photographer to Emperor Napoleon III. The rear imprint confirms that Le Jeune retained that imperial association, identifying the studio as photographer to His Highness the Prince Imperial.

The emperor is dressed in a dark military tunic with dense fringed épaulettes at both shoulders and a broad diagonal sash crossing the chest from right shoulder to left hip. Three medals are pinned to the left breast, including a cross-form decoration consistent with the Legion of Honor. He wears the characteristic pointed imperial beard and waxed mustache by which he is immediately recognizable in period portraiture, and his gaze is directed slightly off-axis with a composed, authoritative expression.

Napoleon III served as President of the French Republic from 1848 to 1852 and as Emperor of France from 1852 to 1870, presiding over the Second Empire at the height of its power and cultural ambition. The studio's succession from Levitsky to Le Jeune at 22, rue de Choiseul places this card firmly within the mid-to-late Second Empire period, likely produced between 1864 and 1870.

The reverse is printed in violet with "LE JEUNE, / Photographe Breveté / de S.A.le Prince Impérial" (Patented Photographer to His Highness the Prince Imperial), accompanied by an imperial crown device and the notation "Ancienne Mson Levitsky" (Formerly the House of Levitsky). Inscribed in pencil at the top of the reverse: "Napoleon III."