Germaine Richier emerged as one of the most significant sculptors in France after the Second World War. From 1946 she concentrated on human and animal forms, and with her expressionistic style created a new bestiary of bizarre, imaginary creatures; her very own hybrid beings. Richier's unique interpretation of the natural world was fused with a supreme technique, developed after her apprenticeship with Bourdelle, whereby forms could be cast with shell-like, batwing delicacy.
"La Mante Grande", executed in 1946, is a darkly menacing figure. It bears a strong likeness to other pieces from the same year, such as "L'Araignée" or "L'Homme Chauve-Souris". In all these, the surfaces appear heavily corroded, and evoke the texture of the bark of a tree, or the surface of a rock, or even human flesh. In her works Richier was eager to fuse elements from the animal, vegetable and mineral world.
Because of their disintegrating and haunted appearance, the sculptures often seemed close to that of Giacometti. However, they derive from a very different source. Richier wanted to invent metaphors for humanity wasted and degraded by the fear and savagery that she had come to know in the Forties. As the artist herself said, "Je suis plus sensible à un arbre calciné qu'à un pomme en fleurs". (repro. in Germaine Richier 1904-1959, Ex. Cat., Galerie Creuzevault, Paris 1966)