Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin—better known by her pseudonym, George Sand—was a renowned novelist and advocate for women’s rights who gained notoriety for her liberated lifestyle and prominent romances. Photographed here by the equally celebrated portraitist Nadar, Sand confronts the camera with her head cocked slightly to the side, wearing the slightest of wry smiles, and exuding a sense of self-possession and ease. Portraits such as this one, which would have been widely disseminated on printed cards known as cartes de visite, were central in solidifying Sand publicly as a force within French cultural circles.