Carte-de-visite three quarter length photograph of Queen Isabel II of Spain. The subject is shown in three quarter view, facing left, with her head turned towards the viewer. She is standing in front of a painted trompe l'oeil studio backdrop representing a woodland glade with a lake and trees. Her dark hair is arranged in a centre parting, braided and held in a chignon and she is wearing drop earrings. She is wearing a mid-coloured silk gown with a full skirt, crinoline and bustle. The skirt features a geometric pattern of horizontal and vertical white lines and alternating pleated tiers of pale and mid-coloured silk at the hem. The bodice of the gown is fitted and overlayed with a sheer lace chemise with flounced cuffs. Isabel is wearing an oval locket on a black ribbon around her neck. She crosses her hands in front of her body and in her right hand she is holding a closed fan.

Isabella was the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand VII of Spain and his fourth wife Maria Christina of Bourbon. In 1846 she married Francisco de Asís of Bourbon, Duke of Cadiz and the couple had nine children.