Sculpture by Maurice Bouval: ‘Revealing the Mystery’

Maurice Bouval’s “Revealing the Mystery” Sculpture features a nude woman who stands upon the stem of a giant poppy on which she leans. This action is performed to pry the flower’s petals with her body weight, revealing the mystery of the flower located at its center. The significance of the poppy as a theme in Art Nouveau artworks is bound up in the effects of opium, a product of the flower. Thus, revealing the mystery in this sculpture alludes to the narcotic results of opium, a poppy product that many artists, theosophical societies, and occultists prized