A first-hand document of the Paris Commune's aftermath, this albumen stereoview on a yellow card mount records the shell-damaged facades lining the Canal Saint-Martin in 1871. The photographer is identified by initials as Q.V., confirmed by research as Jules Hippolyte Queval, who issued his "Insurrection de Paris" series under the publication credit "Q.V. à Paris." The card was retailed through A. Hautecœur at 172 rue de Rivoli, a publisher and seller of photographs and prints whose firm was originally founded as the Ancienne Maison Martinet.

The view centers on a multi-story Haussmann-era building whose windows are blown out across every floor, the iron balcony railings intact but the interior floors clearly destroyed. At street level, the building's ground-floor arcade of stone arches still stands while rubble spills across the pavement beneath it. Two small figures stand at the quay's edge in the middle ground, offering scale, and stone quayside steps descend toward the canal in the immediate foreground.

The Paris Commune was the most significant insurrectionary commune that emerged in France in 1870 to 1871, coming to an end during the suppression known as Bloody Week, from May 21 to May 28, 1871. Once Paris was retaken by the Versaillais forces, photographers were employed to document the destroyed buildings, in order to highlight the actions of the Communards, even as many of the destructions had in fact been caused by the Versaillais bombardments.

The recto of the card carries the printed series title "Insurrection de Paris" and the credit "Photog. par Q.V. à Paris" in vertical letterpress at both left and right margins. The reverse bears a green publisher's stamp reading "Anc[ienne] M[aison] Martinet / A. Hautecœur / 172, Rue de Rivoli," with manuscript notations in pencil reading "Siege of Paris / 1871" and, in a second hand, "Maison, Nords Canal St. Martin" (House, north side Canal Saint-Martin), along with the catalog notation "7/08/12" and the name "COABEZ" in ink below.