[1] [2] It depicts two figures from Ancient Greek Mythology Heracles and Diomedes.

Gros, a former pupil of Jacques-Louis David, was a proponent of Neoclassicism and sharply opposed to the rising trend of Romanticism.

[3] The painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1835 at the Louvre in Paris.

The poor reception of the painting there led him to commit suicide the same year.

[4] Today it is in the collection of the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, having been acquired in 1836.