Emile de Girardin

A carte-de-visite portrait of Emile de Girardin (1802-1881). He is possibly seen here with his second wife, Guillemette Josephine Brunold, countess von Tieffenbach, the widow of Prince of Frederick of Nassau.

Emile de Girardin was a French journalist and economist, also the editor of popular Conservative organ La Presse from 1836 to 1856 and again from 1862 to 1866.

Although his paper originally supported the election of Prince Louis Napoléon, Girardin subsequently became one of the Emperor's most outspoken opponents. In 1856 he sold La Presse, only to resume it again in 1862. Its vogue was over, however, and he started another journal La Liberté, the sale of which was forbidden on the streets. He was a vehement supporter of war with Prussian and the policies of Thiers. After the crisis of May 1877 and the fall of Jules Simon, he resumed his pen yet again, this time to attack MacMohan.

In 1831 he married Delphine Gay, and after her death in 1855, Guillemette Josephine Brunold, Countess von Tieffenbach, the widow of Prince Frederick of Nassau. He was divorced from his second wife in 1872.

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.