His only surviving work is the best known depiction of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when French Catholics killed French Protestants (Huguenots) in Paris. It is not known whether Dubois himself was present at the event but a close relative, the surgeon Antoine Dubois, died in the slaughter. Dubois fled to Lausanne to escape the persecution the Catholics continued to impose upon the Huguenots, and a fellow refugee, a banker from Lyon, commissioned the painting to commemorate the massacre.