Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925) was the son of two prominent sculptors - Thomas and Mary Francis - whose time as a child in their studio inspired him also to pursue a career as a sculptor, despite his father's opposition. Thornycroft trained in his parents' studio before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1869, and at which time he was instructed by Frederic Leighton whose influence on his work is evident in his public sculptures and statuettes. A trip to Italy in 1871 transformed Thornycroft's style from neoclassicism to the realism and naturalism of the New Sculpture movement, under which his creativity and popularity flourished. Over the course of the next decade Thornycroft's sculpture achieved great success and established his position as Britain's leading sculptor.

He first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the tender age of twenty two, showing a marble bust entitled Professor Sharpey (ref. no. 1558), a renowned physiologist, and a marble relief listed as Mrs Mordant (ref. no. 1571). The Mower (1882-1884) is regarded as Thornycroft's masterpiece and is considered to be the first life-size sculpture of a labouring man in Britain, representing the move towards depicting scenes of everyday life by the New Sculpture artists. The Mower was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1884 (ref. no. 1856) to significant critical acclaim. Throughout his career, Thornycroft completed a huge body of work in his lifetime, including public memorials and monuments; architectural sculptures, including reliefs and freizes; small bronze and marble work.

This plaster version of Putting the Stone depicts a male nude in movement. His torso is turned whilst he bears the weight on his right leg, with the unfinished arm placements gesturing to a vigorous throwing motion. This figure was later completed in bronze and reflects not only the popularity of athleticism in sculptural forms in this period, but also the influence of his earlier instruction from Leighton - whose own figuration of an athlete had been shown at the Royal Academy just three years before and was at that point titled An Athlete Strangling a Python (ref no. 1466). In common with Thornycroft's series of female nudes in which the The Sandal (c. 1916) was intended, Putting the Stone was also originally conceived as part of a larger set - in this instance a series of model male athletic nudes with another statuette from the series, Teucer (1881), exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year (ref no. 1495) and taking its inspiration in subject-matter from Homer's Iliad.