Carte-de-visite head and shoulders portrait of Marie, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Schwerin, in a vignette format. She is shown from a frontal viewpoint, facing the camera. Her hair is curled and arranged in ringlets and decorated with a ribbon. She is wearing a pale coloured top, tied at the collar with a ribbon. She is wearing drop earrings and an oval locket on a black choker around her neck.

The subject was born Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore of Mecklenburg Schwerin, daughter of Grand Duke Frederick Francis II of Mecklenburg Schwerin and Princess Augusta of Reuss Köstritz. In 1874 she married the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and the couple had four sons and a daughter. She became a prominent hostess in St Petersburg, becoming a rival of the Empress Maria Feodorovna.

On the death of her husband in 1909, she succeeded him as President of the Academy of Fine Arts.