Serendipity occasionally aids the Muses, as here, where a worker's fatigue, a gentle breeze, and a bit of sunshine have helped one of the medium's early masters achieve something far beyond his original intention. Mestral was commissioned by Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy Dechaume (1816–1892) to document one of his sculptures, an angel of the Passion, before it was lifted to a high and inaccessible perch at the base of the spire of the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris. Working at the site, the photographer hung a white canvas on the construction scaffold to isolate the sculpture against a light, neutral background, admirably fulfilling his mission. Both form and detail are beautifully and clearly rendered. What makes the image remarkable, however, is one of those miraculous accidents that photography allows and even welcomes: during the long, ten- or fifteen-minute exposure, a breeze stirred the drapery, softening its edges and folds in a blur of light. As a result, one has the impression that the sculpted angel has come to life and descended on a beam of light to appear to the sleeping workman in a dream—like the angel appearing to Jacob—while his companion, awake and alert, remains oblivious to the vision taking place just a few feet away.