Gheorghe Leonida

Gheorghe Leonida (1892/93–1942) was a Romanian sculptor known for creating the head of Christ the Redeemer, the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[2] When his father, a career officer, was forced to leave Galați, Gheorghe graduated from high school in Bucharest, where he then continued his studies at the department of sculpture of the Conservatory of Fine Arts.

After fighting in World War I, Leonida continued art studies in Italy for three years, and his work received prizes in Rome (for the work Reveil) and Paris (Le Diable).

In 1925, he moved to Paris, where Paul Landowski had just received the commission to collaborate with Heitor da Silva Costa in the conclusion of the architectural monum Christ the Redeemer.

He died in the spring of 1942, falling off the roof of his family home in Bucharest, while picking linden flowers.