José Rodrigues Nunes was a Brazilian artist who worked primarily in Salvador, Bahia. He was primarily a painter, but also worked in the fields of decoration, restoration, and set design. He was a student of Franco Velasco and is the final painter of the Bahian School of Painting. Nunes taught drawing at Liceu Provincial de Salvador between 1837 and 1859. His students included Olímpio Pereira da Mata, Macário José da Rocha, João Francisco Lopes Rodrigues, Francisco da Silva Romão, and his son, Francisco Rodrigues Nunes. In addition to being a teacher, he worked as a scenographer at the São José Theater for many years. He is considered one of the representatives of the final phase of Bahian colonial painting. A series of paintings by Nunes is part of the personal collection of the Bahian physician Jonathan Abbot. He also produced portraits of Bahian religious figures and politicians.