The first of three bronze sculptures by British artist Frederic Leighton shows an athlete wrestling with a boa constrictor. Completed in 1877, the bronze sculpture is a new creation by Leighton. The emergence of this sculpture heralded the emergence of a new movement New Sculpture. Second, Frederic Leighton took a realist approach to present classical models. Although it is attributed to the classical tradition, it could be understood as one of the earliest upheavals of modern sculpture in England and Europe. The Athlete is arguably the most influential work of British sculpture of the 19th century.