Vincent enjoyed tremendous success at the Paris Salon in 1777 with his classicizing painting, in which the young, vain and amoral Athenian general Alcibiades is being taught by Socrates. This moralising motif became so popular that the artist made several replicas, of which this painting is thought to be the first. Vincent was a good friend of Sergel, whose Diomedes was probably a source of inspiration for Alcibiades’ head wearing a helmet.