Robineau was a composer and violinist as well as artist; he used the name Alexandre for his musical and Auguste for his artistic activities. He was in London a great deal in the 1780s coming into contact with the Prince of Wales in both his professional capacities.

The subject of this painting can be ascertained through the print made after it published in 1789 by Victor Marie Picot. It records a celebrated fencing match between the Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Chevalier d’Eon which took place at Carlton House on the 9 April 1787 in the presence of the Prince of Wales, members of the nobility and fencing aficionados. The Chevalier d’Éon, was a decorated soldier, spy and diplomat and master fencer who lived the first half of their life as a man, and the second as a woman, and received a certain amount of notoriety for this reason. Medical examination after their death revealed them to be male. D’Eon’s opponent, Chevalier de St Georges was a celebrated composer, violinist and champion fencer; born Joseph Bologne in Guadaloupe, the son of a planter and African enslaved woman, he spent most of his life in Paris.

Here we see the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, left, parrying (or preventing) an attack from d'Éon, wearing female clothes to the right.

A portrait by Thomas Stewart, after Jean Laurant Mosnier, in the National Portrait Gallery depicts d’Eon wearing a black dress, the Croix de St Louis and full cockade of a supporter of the French Revolution (1792, NPG 6937).