The Duel on the Beach places two sword-fighting figures front and center, one lunging forward, the other pushing back. A bright, billowing sky stretches behind them, contrasting with the violence of the scene below. Several of the figures on the beach are based on friends of the painting's commissioner, entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher.

Fisher, a pirate enthusiast, commissioned the work privately before it was shown at an exhibition in Washington, DC. It was later published alongside Rafael Sabatini's short story of the same name in the September 1931 issue of Ladies' Home Journal.