A young woman rests her chin on her hand in this hand tinted French half plate daguerreotype, attributed to Mlle. Verdier of Bordeaux and preserved in its original black molded frame. The attribution rests on the partial printed label on the reverse, which preserves the letters "RDIER" beneath a fragment of the word daguerréotype, together with the applied color for which her studio is known. The label is incomplete, and the plate dates to the 1850s.

Her elbow rests on a table draped in patterned damask tinted blue and rose, her other hand open in her lap. Her dark dress has sheer undersleeves, with a gilt brooch at the collar and ornaments pinned at the waist. Gilt highlights pick out her earring and rings. Her hair is center parted and drawn over the ears, and she meets the camera with a slight smile.

Mlle. Verdier was a French daguerreotypist active in Bordeaux around 1855 to 1858, one of the few women working professionally in photography at a time when the medium was dominated by men. Little is known of her early life or training. Her surviving portraits show the technical command needed to produce polished silver plate images in a provincial studio.

Her studio is associated with hand applied color that gave daguerreotype portraits a painterly warmth. Her Portrait of a Woman, dated about 1858 and now in the National Gallery of Art, is a daguerreotype with applied color measuring 9.8 x 7 cm, with a studio label for "Mademoiselle VERDIER" on the frame verso. A quarter plate portrait of about 1855, also attributed to her, is tinted in reds, golds, blues, and yellows.

Her studio labels are reproduced in Pierre Barou's Photographes en Gironde alongside those of Bordeaux contemporaries such as the Barberons. Few of her daguerreotypes are recorded.

The plate is set behind a black painted glass passe-partout with a gilt oval window and a fine gilt line. The frame is molded in deep relief with flowers, scrolls, and cartouches at the center of each side. Reverse with black paper backing and remnants of a green printed label reading in part "...OTYPE" and "...RDIER." Half plate.