The burned facade of the Palais-Royal fills both stereo frames of this albumen silver print on an orange-mounted card, published under the series title "Ruines de Paris 1870-71." The imprint on the left margin reads "B.K. Edit., Paris," identifying the Paris-based publisher, and the card's vivid orange stock places it squarely within the commercially produced stereoview trade that flourished in the months immediately following the suppression of the Paris Commune.

The courtyard elevation of the palace is shown head-on, its arched windows gutted and its upper stories left open to the sky. Cannon or artillery wagons and what appear to be military figures line the foreground, scale against the stripped classical colonnade. The card's orange mount bears the series title printed vertically on both the left and right margins in bold letterpress.

In the night of May 23 to 24, 1871, Communard fighters set fire to the Palais-Royal alongside the Tuileries Palace as Versaillais troops closed in on the quarter. The fire was brought under control relatively quickly, limiting damage largely to the right wing of the entrance court and the upper floors of the central building, precisely the destruction visible in these frames. Photographers documented the ruined city in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, with their work concentrated on the official buildings set ablaze by the Communards.

Inscribed in ink on the reverse: "Cour d'honneur du Palais de l'Elysée" (Courtyard of honor of the Elysée Palace); additional pencil notations read "4/19/12," "LAABBZ," and "JS."