Carte-de-visite full length photograph of Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias, made in a studio. In the background there is a trompe l'oeil scene featuring a stone house, a flight of stone steps and foliage. The subject is shown from a frontal view and turns his head towards the right of the image. He rests his left arm on a studio prop resembling a rocky outcrop. He crosses his left leg over his right. The subject is wearing national military uniform decorated with a double row of gilt buttons up the front. He holds the hilt of his sword in his left hand and his cap in his right hand.

Alfonso was the eldest son of Queen Isabella II. Officially his father was her husband King Francis, although there is some debate about his biological paternity.

In 1878 Alfonso married his first cousin, Princess Maria de Las Mercedes but she died within six months of the marriage. In 1879 he married Maria Christina of Austria and the couple had two daughters and a son, who acceded to the throne on his birth, after his father's death.