Émile de Girardin (22 June 1802 – 27 April 1881) was a French journalist, publisher and politician. He was the most successful and flamboyant French journalist of the era, presenting himself as a promoter of mass education through mass journalism. His magazines reached over a hundred thousand subscribers, and his inexpensive daily newspaper La Presse undersold the competition by half, thanks to its cheaper production and heavier advertising. This portrait also appeared as a woodburytype in the periodical “Galerie Contemporaine Littéraire, Artistique” (1877), volume 2