A bust-length portrait of a young man, presented within a vignette oval on an albumen carte de visite made by Étienne Carjat & Cie at their studio at 10, rue Notre-Dame de Lorette, Paris. Carjat occupied the Notre-Dame de Lorette address from 1869 through 1884, placing this card firmly in that period. The front imprint reads "Etienne Carjat & Cie Phot." while the reverse carries the separate imprint of Pierre Petit, 31, Place Cadet, Paris, suggesting the mount was sourced from or associated with Petit's studio. Carjat was celebrated for his numerous portraits of political, literary, and artistic Parisian figures, and his CDVs of private sitters from the same years are prized additions to any collection.

The subject is a young man of perhaps twenty years, shown from the chest up with his gaze directed slightly upward and to the left. He wears a dark sack coat with wide lapels over a buttoned waistcoat, a white shirt with a broad turned-down collar, and a loosely knotted cravat. His dark hair is neatly parted and swept to one side, and a faint trace of a nascent mustache is visible above the lip. The posture is relaxed, arms held just below the frame, lending the image a casual informality consistent with Carjat's characteristic avoidance of elaborate studio staging.

Carjat had learned photography from Pierre Petit in 1858 before opening his own workshop, and the two men remained connected to the same Parisian artistic milieu throughout the Second Empire and early Third Republic. When the Exposition Universelle opened in Paris in 1867, Pierre Petit held the monopoly for photography at the exhibition, an achievement commemorated in the ornate Exposition Universelle 1867 stamp printed in violet on the reverse of this card alongside Petit's Place Cadet address.

The reverse is inscribed in ink script at the top "Dequerry" (surname, identity not further established). Additional notations at the foot of the reverse read "8/07/10," "LODECZ," and "Et°." The front imprint reads: "ETIENNE CARJAT & Cᶦᵉ PHOT. / 10, RUE Nᵀᴿᴱ Dᵀᴿᴱ DE LORETTE" (Etienne Carjat & Co., Photographers, 10, Notre-Dame de Lorette Street). The reverse carries a violet stamp: "PIERRE PETIT / OPÈRE LUI MÊME / 31, PLACE CADET / PARIS" (Pierre Petit / Operates Himself / 31, Place Cadet / Paris), surmounted by the arms of Paris beneath a banner reading "EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE 1867."