File:1881-empire-bra-vie-parisienne-henri-montaut.gif

An "empire" (early nineteenth century) brassiere, as depicted by Henri de Montaut in La Vie Parisienne (January 15 1881). In an interesting alternative historical perspective, corsets (such as worn by the woman at lower right) were taken for granted as everyday items in 1881, while the bra (worn by the woman at upper left, who is fiddling with her right bra strap) was then a curious exotic obsolete historical artifact which had to be explained, and which clearly didn't have any commonly-understood name in the French of 1881.

This illustration is interesting as one of the earliest unambiguous depictions of a garment which closely resembles a modern bra (though whether it is accurate in its representation of the early 19th century is another matter). Note that the artist (de Montaut) has imposed the contour of the Empire/Regency gown (which was tight, but not necessarily constricting, just below the breasts, and loose around the waist and hips) onto his depiction of the unclad torso of an Empire/Regency woman -- apparently projecting the situation of his own time (when it is likely enough that habitual wearing of Victorian corsets would leave a permanent impress on the body) back into the early nineteenth century.

Caption in upper right of image:

"LE CORSET EMPIRE. -- Cela peut-il s'appeler un corset? C'était plutôt un «appui». Deux petites poches de satin blanc, réunies et maintenues par un ruban. Le satin, très-mince, afin de soutenir les accidents de terrain; ce corset-là n'était ni encombrant, ni trompeur, et s'enlevait en un tour de main."

THE EMPIRE CORSET: — Can this really be called a corset? It was more of a "support". Two small white satin pockets, held together in place by a ribbon. The satin, extra thin to cope with the accidents de terrain [a hard-to-translate euphemism, perhaps "landscape features", or "lumps and bumps"]; this corset was neither cumbersome, nor deceptive, and could be removed at a deft touch.