Josep Llimona was a Catalan sculptor who was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1864. He trained at the Escola de la Llotja in Barcelona and obtained a scholarship to go to Rome in 1880, where he was influenced by Florentine Renaissance sculpture. He won prizes and gained a great reputation with the works he sent from Italy. He founded the Círculo Artístico de Sant Lluc with his brother Joan, and his style drifted towards full modernism by the mid-1990s.

He received the prize of honour at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts held in 1907 in Barcelona. From 1900 onwards he concentrated on his famous female nudes, and in 1914 he created, in collaboration with Gaudí, his impressive "Risen Christ". His artistic genius also manifested itself in large public monuments such as the equestrian statue of Saint George in Montjuic Park in Barcelona, as well as in works of funerary imagery, such as the pantheons he created for various cemeteries.

He was president of the Barcelona Museum Board from 1918 to 1924, and again from 1931 until his death in 1934. Llimona's work can be found in the Monastery of Montserrat, the National Art Museum of Catalonia and the Reina Sofia Museum, among others.