George Rennie (sculptor)

George Rennie (23 April 1801 – 22 March 1860) was a Scottish sculptor, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ipswich, and patron of the arts, who served as Governor of the Falkland Islands between 1847 and 1855.

Rennie studied sculpture in Rome before he returned to Britain to exhibit statues and busts at the Royal Academy, and three times at the Suffolk Street Gallery, from 1828 to 1837.

His most important works at the academy were: A Gleaner and Grecian Archer (both 1828); Cupid and Hymen (which depicts Cupid blowing the torch of Hymen) which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum; and busts of Bertel Thorvaldsen and his uncle John Rennie (1831).

His commended 1833 works included: The Archer (which he afterwards presented to the Athenaeum Club, London, and a bust of the artist David Wilkie.

Rennie on 15 December 1847, was invested as Governor of the Falkland Islands, from which he returned to England in 1855.