Rudolf Levy, the scion of an orthodox Jewish entrepreneurial family, was born in Stettin on 15 July 1875. He attended higher secondary school in Danzig. In 1895 Rudolf Levy began studying art at the Grand Ducal Badish School for the Applied Arts in Karlsruhe. After two years, Rudolf Levy went to Munich in 1897, where he attended several private art schools. In Munich he also trained at Heinrich von Zügel's Freilichtatelier (Daylight Studio) and studied German and especially French Impressionism.
In 1903 Rudolf Levy went to Paris, where he came into contact with the Café du Dôme circle of artists. In 1905 Levy showed work at the Salon d'Automne in Paris. The years that followed saw Rudolf Levy participating in numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad, including the 1912 Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne and at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The outbreak of the First World War interrupted Rudolf Levy's career and prevented his showing work at exhibitions. Levy volunteered for military service and fought for Germany on the French front.
After the war Levy lived for a while in Munich but he moved to Berlin in the early 1920s. Rudolf Levy had his first solo show at Alfred Flechtheim's gallery. Rudolf Levy became a member of the board and the jury of the Berlin Secession and showed work at Secession exhibitions. In 1933 Rudolf Levy was forced to leave Germany and spent some time moving about restlessly from place to place before settling in Italy. There he was arrested by the National Socialists in Florence in late 1943 and died while being transported to the Carpi-Fossoli concentration camp near Modena in January 1944.