Time Clipping Cupid's Wings is probably one of the bluntest cries for help ever made during the 17th century.

It doesn't take much to understand that this image is meant to discuss time’s effect on the things we love, and while it's a glum and bitter topic, it is actually a very popular scene and quite a few renditions of it have been made. Perhaps the most notable is a version done by Anthony Van Dyck, which is distinct from this one in the fact that it is a bit darker in tone and has a cupid that actually looks like a baby.

However, where Van Dyck was probably just blowing off some artistic steam, Pierre here was actually in the throws of a major life tragedy. See the thing is that Pierre Mignard was a rival of Charles Le Brun, which was maybe not the smartest move due to the fact that Le Brun was essentially the dictator of all matters artistic in France at the time. He was in charge of all royal commissions, as well as the French Art Academy. Pierre, the bold revolutionary Frenchman he was, was the primary organizer of opposition to Le Brun’s authority. However, this meant that the majority of his artistic projects were relegated to portraits and religious paintings, a prime example being the Portrait of Louise de Kerouaille. 

Then Le Brun died. Pierre subsequently acquired all of Le Brunn’s positions. But alas, this was late in Pierre’s career, and due to the smaller scale nature of the majority of his works, he was not prepared to handle the larger projects that came with royal commissions. Pierre wanted to renovate the cupola of the Hôtel des Invalides as a sort of crowning performance of his career. However, the project met delay after delay. Five years later, still, no progress on the cupola would be made, and he would subsequently die himself. Significantly, this picture was painted one year prior to Pierre’s death, at the very end of his soured career.