«Pomone was a roman deity, probably of Estrucan descent, dedicated to fruits and gardens. It therefore comes with no surprise that the theme became very popular among generations of sculptors ornamenting parks. ‘Le Gros’ or ‘Le Hongre’ for instance, scattered the Palace of Versailles with the figure. Yet if the classical Pomone is represented just as Richier's, as a young and generously built woman, she is traditionally pictured in a sitting position, on a basket of fruits and flowers, a branch in the right hand, and a couple of apples in the left one, as some allegory of fecundity. Richier’s Pomone is quite different, rather representing a sane gluttony, as she delectably bites into her bronze fruit. Forgetting the title, we could imagine her as a barbarian Eve. This is due to the fact that far from drawing her theme from a classical tradition, Richier most probably got it from her friend sculptor Marino Marini, for whom it had been a privileged subject since 1935. Marini lived in Switzerland from 1943 to 1947 and regularly visited Richier’s workshop. He even achieved her portrait. Unconcerned with producing a literary work, Germaine borrowed Marini’s theme, and applied it to her model at the time, Bouboule, who fitted perfectly with the idea. The pagan divinity is hence morphed into a robust woman, the right eye bulging, and so profoundly impregnated with the idea of nature that Germaine Richier’s entourage saw in it a foreshadowing of her Ouragane, of 1948.»
Translation of F. Guiter, excerpt from "Germaine Richier, Rétrospective, Saint-Paul: Fondation Maeght, 1996, p. 52