Photographs were only subject to legal deposit arrangements in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France from 1925 onwards. However, photographers voluntarily deposited their works in the 19th century.
Per an email from April 25, 2012 from the department of photographs at the BNF, this work is of unknown provenance, and it does not have any record of previous exhibitions. They note, that unlike museums, they do not keep a file about each object in their collection.
