The bustle era had two bustle periods with a lull in between them. The dates are arbitrary. Bustles evolved from crinolines in 1870 by confining the flared fullness to the back and stayed in style through 1874. The first bustles flared out and down from full skirts. Silhouettes became columnar and tight in 1875 with flaring confined to the back beginning at about a height just above the knee, at first retaining the exuberant frills of the crinoline era. Dresses became simpler around 1880 and A-line skirts and hourglass figures appeared. But bustles came roaring back around 1884, subsiding by the end of the decade. The second wave bustles erupted back and could even swell aggressively upward, before falling behind a columnar or A-line skirt. The dresses themselves were often relatively plain. Small bustles remained in use to add fullness to the backs of floor-length dresses, a function they still serve in evening and wedding dresses today.
The bustle periods include most of the “Late” Victorian Era - from 1870 to 1890. The remainder of the Victorian era, defined by Queen Victoria’s reign, 1890 to 1901, falls in the Belle Époque when close and even tight hobble skirts were in style.

1870 Geraldine Georgiana Mary Anson, Marchioness of Bristol by Henry Richard Graves (The Rotunda, Ickworth - Horringer, Suffolk, UK)

Emmanuel II of Italy with his morganatic wife The Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda née Rosa Vercellana

1871 Caroline Philips (1846-1928), Lady Trevelyam with son Charles by James Archer (Wallington Hall - Wallington, Northumberland, UK)

1902 Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel (nee Countess Keller, 1846, Kiev - November 19, 1931, Paris) - the owner of the fashionable salon in St. Petersburg by Leon Bakst (location ?)

1872 Countess Antonietta Negroni Prati Morosini by Francesco Hayez (Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano)

1873 (July) The Shah of Persia at the Chiswick garden party given by the Prince and Princess of Wales in July 1873 by or after Louis William Desanges

1873 Countess Elizabeth Vorontsova-Dashkova by Alexandre Cabanel (State Hermitage Museum - St. Petersburg, Russia)

1875 Corset cuirasse in black satin with 34 bones worn over a day chemise with a crayfish tail (Musée municipal de Vire - Vire, Basse-Normandie France)

1876 Mademoiselle X, Marquise Anforti by Charles-Émile-Auguste Carolus Duran (Musée Cambrai - Cambrai, Nord department France)

Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria with his first wife, Henriette Mendel, Baroness von Wallersee, and their daughter, Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich

ca. 1875-1880 Petites tournures en crin de cheval et en métal (Musée municipal de Vire - Vire, Basse-Normandie France)

1880 (summer) Valdemar, Freddy, Lovisa, Minny, Alexander, Queen Louise sitting with her dog, Olga, Villy, Alix and Christian IX

1880 Elizabeth Cavendish, née Dickinson and her son Tyrell by Mary Lemon Waller (auctioned by Sotheby's)

1881 Princess Marie Lubomirska, probably Marie Lannes de Montebello by Henryk Siemiradzki (Detroit Institute of Arts - Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Princesses Feodore, Augusta Victoria (later Empress of Germany), and Karoline Mathilde Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein group portraits

1883 Frances Margaret Lawrence (d.1940), Lady Vernon by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (Sudbury Hall - Sudbury, Ashbourne, Derbyshire)

1883 Comtesse Duhesme by Jules Louis Machard (Musée national du château de Compiègne - Compiègne, Oise department France)

1883 Mary Louise Elizabeth Douglas-Hamilton (née Montagu, later Forster), Duchess of Hamilton by Elliott & Fry (National Portrait Gallery - London, UK)

1883-1884 Anna von Waldberg by Hans Makart (Carolino Augusteum, Salzburger Museum fur Kunst und Kulturge, Salzburg Austria)

1884 Caroline de Bassano, Marquise d'Espeuilles by John Singer Sargent (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco de Young Museum - San Francisco, California USA)

1884 Edith, Lady Playfair, née Russell, by John Sargent (Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

1884 Mademoiselle de Nouille by Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnant (Musée des Beaux-Arts Tours, Tours France)

1884 Elizabeth Beatrice Drake, Lady Seaton by Edwin Long (Plymouth City Council, Museum and Art Gallery - Plymouth, Devon, UK)

1885 Marie-Marthe des Monstiers-Mérinville, née von Oesterreich, au bouquet de fleurs by Konstantin Makovsky (auctioned by Delorme Collin du Bocage, Paris)

ca. 1885 Marquise d'Hervey Saint-Denys by Raimundo Madrazo y Garreta (Musée d'Orsay - Paris, France)

1885 Marquise d'Hervey Saint-Denys standing by Raimundo Madrazo y Garreta (Musée d'Orsay - Paris, France)

1885 Seated Marquise d'Hervey Saint-Denys by Raimundo Madrazo y Garreta (Musée d'Orsay - Paris, France)

1885 Left to right - Princess Alix of Hesse; Princess Irene of Hesse (back row); Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein; Charlotte, Princess Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen; Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein

1886 Satin, embroidered with glass beads worn by May Primrose for her wedding to Major Herbert Littledale in June (Victoria and Albert Museum - London, UK)

1886 Archduke Karl Stephan of Austria and Archduchess Maria Theresia, Princess of Tuscany wedding photo

1886 Mrs. Douglas Dick (née Isabelle Parrott, wife of Archibald Campbell Douglas) by John Singer Sargent (private collection)

1887 Margarete, Landgravine of Hesse; Queen Sophie of Greece (née Princess Sophie of Prussia) by Alexander Bassano

ca. 1887 Contessa de Leusse by Giovanni Boldini (Museo Giovanni Boldini - Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna Italy)

1887 Mrs. William Playfair, née Emily Kitson, by John Singer Sargent (Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens - San Marino, California, USA)

1887 Baronne du Mesnil de Saint-Front formerly Mme. Feu Prosper Crabbe by Alfred Stevens (auctioned by Bonhams)

1887 Louise Catharina Antoinetta van Loon-Borski (1832-1893), member of the rich Dutch family Borski, married Hendrik van Loon in 1853 by Alexandre Cabanel (location ?)

1888(?) Count Ludovic Lepic and Ladies Viewing an Exhibition by Julius LeBlanc Stewart (location unknown to gogm)

ca. 1888 Court presentation ensemble by Worth (Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York City, New York USA)

1888 Lady Forbes-Leith, née Mary Louise January (d.1930) by Francisque-Edouard Bertier (Fyvie Castle - Turriff, Aberdeenshire, UK)

1889 Lucy Celia Ashton (neé Gardner) later Countess of Scarbrough by Edward Robert Hughes (auctioned by Christie's)

Honourable Mary Baring, later Marchioness of Northampton by George Frederic Watts (private collection)
