Carte-de-visite half length photograph of King Karl I of Romania. The subject is shown in three quarter view, facing towards the left of the image. He has dark hair arranged in a centre parting and a full beard and moustache. He is wearing military uniform adorned with various insignia and a row of eight medals on his left breast, a mandarin collar, epaulettes and fastened up the front with a row of gilt buttons.

Karl was the second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Princess Josephine of Baden. In 1869 he married Princess Elisabeth of Wied and the couple had one daughter Marie, who died in 1874 at the age of three.