Rudolf Bacher was an Austrian painter and sculptor
He studied from 1882 to 1888 at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Vienna under the Austrian painter Leopold Carl Muller (1834-92). In 1886 he was awarded the first Hofpreis.

His early paintings, religious in content, included Saved (1887, Graz, Neue Gal.), Ave Maria (1899, Brno, Mus. City) and the altarpiece The Heart of Jesus (1912, Linz, Cathedral). In 1890 he made a trip to Rome. From 1894 he was a member of the Kunstlerhaus in Vienna and was associated with the Hagenbund. In 1896 he won the minor gold medal at the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Berlin, and in the following year he was a founder-member of the Vienna Secession.

From 1903 to 1933 Bacher was a professor at the Academy in Vienna, serving several terms as Director and Deputy Director between 1911 and 1929, and in 1933 being made an honorary member. He was awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science in 1942, and the Waldmuller prize in 1943.