Rafael Rodríguez Padilla (January 23, 1890 – January 24, 1929) was a Guatemalan painter, printmaker and sculptor. In 1920 he was cofounder and became the first director of the Guatemalan Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Academy of Fine Arts), which merged into the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas "Rafael Rodríguez Padilla".
Rodríguez studied sculpture under the Venezuelan Santiago González (1850–1909) in Guatemala. Afterwards he went to Spain, where he finished his studies under Luis Muriel y López. After his return to Guatemala, he painted his famous self-portrait. He committed suicide in 1929.
Selected works
self-portrait, 1915
Lorenzo Montúfar y Rivera monument in the Avenida La Reforma, 1923
Francisco Vela monument
José Milla y Vidaurre monument
Louis Pasteur monument
Mausoleum of the Castillo family, (together with Cristóbal Azori), Guatemala City General Cemetery art nude portrait of Jaime Sabartés, 1923 portrait of Santiago González