George Maccallum was an Edinburgh-born sculptor active in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Maccallum was a pupil of William Brodie and may have joined the studio of sculptor Alexander Handyside Ritchie before setting up on his own. His portrait busts and statuettes quickly earned the approval of art critics and fellow artists.
From 1860 onwards, he exhibited each year at the Royal Scottish Academy, and The Scotsman newspaper looked forward to Maccallum’s promising future. Then, in late summer 1868 he was ‘suddenly seized […] with some fainting fits’. He died of heart disease a few days later, aged twenty-eight.
At his death, Maccallum was working on the group representing the working class for the Scottish National Memorial to the Prince Consort in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.
