This small terracotta study, which is probably not related to any known finished work, exemplifies Nollekens's facility in handling clay. It may have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800 and purchased, after Nollekens's death, by another sculptor, Peter Rouw, when it appeared in the sale of Nollekens's studio effects held on 4 July, 1823.

Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) was a prolific sculptor of portrait busts and operated a thriving workshop in London. He spent eight years in Rome from 1762 to 1770, where he worked with Bartolomeo Cavaceppi restoring and copying antique marbles. One of these copies, his group of Castor and Pollux, is in the Museum's collection (Museum no. A.59-1940). He probably perfected his modelling of clay while he was in Rome and started to experiment in making small figures or groups. These occasionally became models for large-scale finished marbles, but many, like this one, still in his studio at his death, were simply studies in their own right, which he called pensieri (thoughts).