
the porcupine by ray french
As I shared in the tour of my great aunt and uncle’s home in South Carolina, they have acquired a lot of interesting art pieces over the years. I wanted to highlight one specifically because it’s a neat piece by a known artist, but also because of a special inscription. The work is the Porcupine, a 1949 engraving by Ray French. At first glance, you might think this is just a framed print, but when you lean in and look… You can see that this is engraving 5/25 and the Porcupine is signed in pencil by Ray French. One cool thing about this particular engraving is that another engraving in the series of the Porcupine was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in 1949. And you can see that the engraving hanging in my aunt’s house is inscribed “To Marian.” Of course, I wasn’t around in 1949, so I’m









