use Photorealism per se could only develop after photography itself became the aesthetic norm for portraiture), but the clear intent of the artist in his painting is to provide a realistic representation of a pretty young woman dressed (or rather more undressed than dressed) in the faux-peasant style then much in vogue in France, having been popularized by the queen, Marie Antoinette. While the style of the portrait is essentially formal - this is a clearly a posed subject - there is also a certain intentional artlessness about the portrait, as if the young woman had just come in from some bucolic duty (or perhaps arisen from her bed, given her state of dishabillee and the sheerness of her camisole).
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