Married by Mistake, romance paperback cover c. 1993

Robert Maguire created this oil painting for the cover of the paperback novel, *Married by Mistake*. Maguire was a prolific artist whose work helped define the visual aesthetic of mid-century American popular fiction. He painted hundreds of covers, many of which featured strong women in suspenseful situations. But here, he uses his characteristic style to depict a romantic scene; a blond woman in a blue dress is held by a blond man in a red jacket. They gaze off into a smoky landscape where a castle looms in the distance. It is interesting to consider these types of images as cultural artifacts which are both highly constructed and broadly consumed. What do these images tell us about the performance of gender? What type of escapism are they offering? It is tempting to dismiss images like this as mere ephemera, but they offer an opportunity to analyze the narratives that shape our desires.