Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, served as pope from 1846 to 1878, and this hand-colored carte de visite captures him in a full-length standing pose before a columned architectural backdrop with a painted garden vista beyond. The image is produced by the Fratoddi studio, Via Felice No. 108, Rome, and the coloring technique, mount style, and imprint are consistent with production during the pontificate.

The subject stands on a tiled floor wearing the white papal cassock with a row of small buttons down the front, a light blue fringed fascia at the waist with gold tassel ends, and a sweeping red papal mantum with gold border trim draped over both shoulders. A gold pectoral cross on a red cord is visible at the chest, and he wears the distinctive broad-brimmed red galero. Red papal shoes are visible at the hem, and he holds a dark walking staff in his right hand. The hand-applied color is vivid, rendering the scarlet and ivory of the vestments with considerable care.

The reverse bears the ornate printed studio imprint of Fratoddi, Via Felice n° 108, Roma, a studio active in Rome during the era of the Papal States and known for ecclesiastical and portrait work. In the nineteenth century, Rome was the center of artistic life in the Western world, and the capital of the Papal State drew patrons and photographers alike to document its prominent figures.

The reverse is inscribed in ink at the upper edge as "Pio Nino" and at the lower edge as "Pio IX," both referencing Pius IX by his affectionate Italian nickname and his formal papal numeral.