File:Mikhail Bakunin 1864-1.2 V01-1.1.1 cropped BNF (btv1b84386525).jpg

English: Portrait photograph of Mikhail Bakunin in Paris by Étienne Carjat, November 1864.

Bakunin's stays in Paris, because they were brief, were not well documented. Carr states that after a six week stay Bakunin left London for Brussels and Paris in late November 1863 (p. 298). He also records that he never visited Paris after 1864 (p. 414). It's not clear if this visit for once or more than one. Nettlau, on the other hand, states that Bakunin met with Elie and Elisée Reclus in Paris on November 1864. Indeed he was right, another source confirms that he was in Paris between December 6 and December 10, 1864 (Paul Reclus, p. 59). Lehning too confirms that Bakunin travelled in Scandinavia between August and December of 1864, and after that he returned to London, left for Paris and then for Florence (Archives Bakounine, I/II, p. XXXVII; Lehning also speculates on the possibility of Bakunin meeting with Proudhon before his death, but this speculation also, confirms again his stay at Paris, Archives Bakounine, I/I, p. XVI-XVII).

From these informations it's certain that Bakunin never visited Paris after the late 1864, and these were for brief periods. His visits to Paris of August 1862, of late 1863 (Pirumova, Ch. VI; Guillaume, 1907, p. XXIX; Woodcock, p. 266; Guerin, 1978) and of November 1864 were all brief ones.

As for Carjat, he sold his studio to his former partners, Légé and Bergeron due to his debts with Le Boulevard. They continued this studio as "Legé & Bergeron, anciens associés, succrs de Carjat & Cie" ("Legé & Bergeron, former partners, [and] successors of Carjat & Cie"). There being prints of this photo with their stamp confirms that it was Carjat who photographed Bakunin (because he never been in Paris after 1865), and not them.

Michelet's 1999 print of "Légendes démocratiques du Nord: la sorcière", which uses the same photograph stored in the BNF, dates the photograph as from 1864 and by Carjat (p. ... 2nd unnumbered page between the pages 44 and 45), which fits into this general information and thus confirms the year of photograph.