Vladimir Georgiev Rilski was born in 1905 in Peshtera in the family of the prominent intellectual Georgi Rilski. He graduated from the Plovdiv Boys' High School "Alexander I" and entered the Art Academy in Sofia in 1925, where his teachers were Prof. Dimitar Gyuzhenov, Prof. Nikola Marinov and Prof. Stefan Ivanov. In 1929 he left for specialization in Vienna. After returning to Bulgaria, Vladimir Rilski started working as a high school art teacher in Plovdiv. He joins the circle of Baratsite - the artists Vasil Barakov, Zlatyu Boyadjiev, Tsanko Lavrenov, whose motto is deep in spirit national art. Rilski organized his first solo exhibition in Plovdiv in 1938. He also held a joint exhibition with Zlatyu Boyadzhiev.

From 1945 he taught at the Art Academy in Sofia. During this period, he participated in many exhibitions, and in 1946 his solo exhibition in Sofia was opened by the writer Georgi Karaslavov. In 1949, Rilski went to work in Smolyan - making panels, painting posters, painting interiors of public buildings - activities with which he supported his family, who remained in Sofia. Indicative of the personality of Vladimir Rilski is the attitude of his contemporaries towards him - because of his idealistic spirit, he was called the Silverless and the Forest Tsar by Rodopians.This mystical-lyrical philosophy of life reflects on Rilski's art – his painting brings the romance of church icon painting and the realism of Bulgarian folk art. That is why during his life time the artist was considered as one of the brightest representatives of the movement for native art in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century. His emblematic cycle of revival houses from Koprivshtitsa is exactly from this period (the 30's of the 20th century). Rilski showed picturesque views of the Rhodopes at his solo exhibition in Sofia in 1964.Today, his works are exhibited in the National Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Art Galleries of Plovdiv, Vratsa, Varna, Smolyan, Pernik, Karlovo, Kazanlak and other state and private collections.

He died in 1969, in a accident in Shiroka Laka.