The actress Marie Laurent was very successful on the Parisian stage in the late 1840s. Her face was generally described as strong and expressive rather than handsome, so Nadar came up with the idea of photographing her from behind, emphasizing her thick, lovely dark hair pinned up with a Spanish-style comb, and the line of her shoulders. As he often did with his portraits of women, he preferred plain draped cloth to the cluttered clothing style of the era. Overall, the composition offers a particuliarly subtle formal study.