The actor Chénard. Flag Bearer at the Festival of Freedom of Savoy (October 14, 1799)

Boilly painted The Actor Chénard as Flag Bearer at the Festival of Freedom around 1792, depicting the celebrated comic actor of the Opéra-Comique in his role at one of the great Revolutionary public celebrations. The Festival of Freedom was among the most spectacular public ceremonies of the Revolutionary period, and Boilly's documentation of an actor from the popular theater participating in it reflects both his sustained interest in Parisian popular culture and his ability to combine the conventions of theatrical portraiture with the documentary ambitions of contemporary political painting. The work demonstrates his unique position at the intersection of professional portraiture, genre painting, and historical documentation.

Boilly renders the full-length figure with his characteristic meticulous detail and smooth finish. The tricolor flag and sans-culotte costume are painted with the precise observation that makes Boilly's Revolutionary-era works valuable historical documents.