'Time is Cruel' might be a better title for this painting by American artist Ivan Albright.

As far as Ida is concerned, her soul came and went a long time ago and she spent the many years in between chain smoking and drinking heavily.

I think Ida knows she looks beat. She's looking into her hand mirror somewhat longingly for the past. Perhaps she used to be beautiful and less... lumpy. Her wrinkled visage is a frightening reminder to use sunscreen and to wash off that make-up before you go to bed. 

But like bailing water out of a sinking ship, you can apply that eye cream as much as you want, and aging is still inevitable. The nature of beauty, like many other things in life, is that it's fleeting and Albright does more than remind us. He wacks us over the head with this sad fact.