Johann Friedrich Matthäi (1777-1845) was the son of Johann Gottlob Matthäi who worked for the Meissen Porcelain Factory. He was a pupil at the Academy in Dresden, and then studied under Heinrich Friedrich Füger at the Academy in Vienna. He won a medal in 1803 and was an honorary professor at the academies of Dresden and Rome. In 1810 he was appointed director of the Academy in Dresden.
 
Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1775-1815) led the volunteer corps of the Black Brunswickers against the Napoleonic domination of Germany. He was the brother of Caroline, Queen Consort of George IV. He joined the Prussian army in 1789 as a captain and fought in battles against Revolutionary France. At the outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809, he was moved to create a corps of partisans with support from the Austrian Empire; the Black Brunswickers were so-called because they wore black uniforms in mourning for their occupied country. After briefly taking back control of Brunswick he fled to England and joined forces with his brother-in-law, the Prince Regent. Frederick William returned to Brunswick in December 1813, after Prussia had ended French domination in the region. When Napoleon returned from exile to the political stage in 1815, Frederick William raised fresh troops. He was killed by a gunshot at the Battle of Quatre Bras, fought on 16 June 1815 between Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army and the Armée du Nord under Marshal Ney.

This work was said by Richard Redgrave to resemble a painting exhibited at Dresden in 1836 for the Duke of Brunswick. There is a study in the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum (inv no VM 5240). The Duke is shown in the thick of the battle, mounted on a bay horse, leading an attack; he holds a sabre aloft and turns his head to talk to a mounted officer. In the foreground, amidst allied soldiers surging to the right, a Highlander is about to bayonet a cuirassier.