Paul Féval, the French popular novelist, is portrayed in a three-quarter bust CDV by Carl Krause, 125 Leipziger Strasse, Berlin, showing the author in middle age seated and turned slightly to his left, wearing a dark coat and patterned cravat with a white shirt, one hand resting on his knee. His expression is direct and composed, his dark hair brushed back, and a close-cropped beard and mustache frame his features. The plain background and straightforward studio lighting are characteristic of Krause's portrait work.

The Carl Krause studio at 125 Leipziger Strasse, Berlin, produced portrait CDVs of international literary and cultural figures distributed across Europe, and the red crown device on the reverse indicates a commercial distribution imprint. The penciled notation on the reverse reads Paul Féval in a period hand.

Paul Féval (1816–1887) was one of the most prolific and widely read French popular novelists of the nineteenth century, best known for Le Bossu (1857), a swashbuckling adventure novel set in the era of Louis XIV that remained a staple of French popular culture for generations. He also created the character Lagardère, a celebrated swordsman hero, and was among the founding figures of the French feuilleton novel tradition alongside Dumas and Eugène Sue. Later in life he converted to devout Catholicism and revised several of his earlier works to reflect his changed beliefs.

The reverse bears a penciled inscription reading Paul Féval with the Carl Krause studio imprint in red and dealer code 5/29/11 / LOACBZ / Eb.