Smiling Angel, Gothic sculpture at Reims Cathedral, France

The Smiling Angel is a carved stone figure set to the left of the north portal of Reims Cathedral's west facade, made around 1240. It is shown from the chest up with a head tilted to its right and slightly downward, curved lips and lowered eyes, wavy hair curling around the forehead and ears, and two large wings with rows of overlapping feathers rising behind the shoulders. The pale grey stone is stained brown and ochre, with cracks and pitted areas across the face, hair, wings and the worn left hand bent across the chest.

The sculpture was created around 1240 and suffered damage from a fire that struck the cathedral, causing its head to fall and later be reconstructed from fragments. The restored figure returned to its place after the repair work was completed.

The angel displays a natural facial expression that breaks away from medieval traditions, showing a new way divine beings were represented in religious art. This gentle portrayal sets it apart from the more austere figures seen elsewhere in cathedral sculpture.

The angel stands to the left of the north portal of the west facade, facing toward its right; its counterpart, the Angel of the Annunciation, faces left across the same portal. The figure is set high on the portal, so the smile and the cracks in the stone read best from a distance on the parvis rather than directly below.

The angel's fame spread through a 1915 pamphlet by Reims photographer Pierre Antony-Thouret showing the statue before and after the fire. A cast of its broken head toured exhibitions in the United States, Canada, Argentina and Chile in 1916, and the image later appeared on stamps issued in 1930, 1956 and 2007.