Khaled Al-Rahal (also given as Khālid al-Raḥḥāl, 1926–1987) (Arabic: خالد الرحال) was an Iraqi painter and sculptor and one of the leaders of the modern art movement in Iraq.

Described as one of the "pillars of modern Iraqi art," he was responsible for executing a number of high-profile public monuments in Baghdad in the mid-20th century.

[3] Throughout the 1940s, al-Rahal maintained a studio in Baghdad's commercial district, where he made and sold busts of the Iraqi monarch and other works, all of which were very popular with the public.

[4] The Iraqi artist, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, described his visit to al-Rahal's studio in the following terms:[5] "I shall never forget how one evening in 1948 (he was twenty-two then, and unknown), he took me to a tiny, shabby room in a small shabby house in one of Baghdad's oldest quarters, where we sat on a rush-mat and out of a battered chest he produced, like a magician, a pile of most beautiful drawings, many of which were studies for his sculpture.

[6] Al-Rahal received his earliest formal education at Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts under the supervision of the eminent Iraqi sculptor, Jawad Saleem, graduating with a Diploma in Sculpting in 1947.

[13] In the early 1960s, he was awarded another scholarship to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, which further exposed him to the fundamentals of European sculpture.

[17] Under, Saddam Hussein, the Ba'ath Party co-opted the Baghdad Modern Art Group because its objectives aligned with their vision of a National Arab identity.

[18] Sculptors, architects and engineers, in particular, benefited from Hussein's program to beautify the city of Baghdad as numerous public art works were commissioned.

Throughout the 1970s, he designed several monuments commemorating historic Iraqi figures including: Abu Jafar al-Mansour,[20] the 8th-century Abbasid Caliph and founder of Baghdad, the Lady of the Marshes, the March of the Ba'ath and Abd al-Karim Qasim, the Iraqi brigadier who overthrew the monarchy and established a republic in 1958 and also executed sculptures of everyday people such as Shaqawiyya (an Arab girl from southern Iraq)[21] and the Mother and Child statue.

In an interview with the Government Daily, al-Rahhal expressed the view that the Iraqi people were the direct offspring of the ancient Sumerians, and was quoted:[29] "There are some things that haven't changed.

I used to spend most of my [spare] time outside the museum studying the faces of women sour-milk vendors [of South Baghdad] for they represent the continuity in today's life, of the Sumerian people; the same eyes, sharp and broad; the brows running together, and the nose and the cut of the features.