Carte-de-visite three quarter length photograph of Duchess Sophie of Alencon. The subject is shown in three quarter view, facing towards the left of the image, with her face in profile. Her dark hair is braided and arranged in a chignon. On the left of the scene there is a marble-topped desk, covered with a tapestry cloth, on which the subject rests her left elbow. She is wearing a mid-coloured silk gown with a black velvet bodice and a full skirt, embellished with faceted jet beads on the shoulders, sleeves and waist. She is holding her left arm up to her shoulder.

Sophie was the daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria and she was the ninth of their ten children. In 1868 she married the Duke Ferdinand of Alençon and the couple had two children. In 1897 Sophie died in the infamous fire at the Bazar de la Charité in Paris.