Historical research has not identified any biographical details of a real Nicolas Chauvin, leading to the claim that he may have been a wholly fictional figure. Researcher Gérard Puymège concluded that Nicolas Chauvin did not exist, believing him to be a legend, which crystallized under the Restoration and July Monarchy, from the pen of songwriters, vaudeville and historians. He argues that the figure of Chauvin continues the long tradition of the mythological farmer-soldier or "miles gloriosus" ("boastful soldier") from ancient Roman theater, or the "alazon" of ancient Greek comedy. Chauvin was originally popularized by Cogniard brothers' "La Cocarde Tricolore" (1831), where instead of a Napoleonic veteran he was a young naive soldier learning blindly aggressive patriotism during the Algerian campaign of 1830.