An early model by Reid Dick, the original bronze of The Catapult, or Slingboy, as it is also known, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1911 (no. 1920; now in Bradford City Art Gallery, Cartwright Hall). The work was subsequently cast by Giovanni Galizia for the Parlanti foundry in two sizes, the present version and reduction in half-scale. Recalling elements of Leighton's An Athlete wrestling with a Python (1874) and The Sluggard (1890), as well as Gilbert's Perseus Arming (1881-2), The Catapult was described by Granville Fell as a 'well-balanced, tense figure, precise in modelling...' (Granville Fell, pl. 2).

Another example of this scale cast after 1927 and stamped by the Morris Singer foundry with similarly green Patina was sold at Bonhams, London, 4 November 2015, lot 297 (£26,250), and a further example without the foundry stamp was sold in the same rooms, 16 June 2021, lot 54.