Of all the celebrated fashion illustrators of the 1930s – 1970s, Brian Stonehouse MBE stands out as the most remarkable. Born in Torquay in 1918 and brought up between England and France, Stonehouse attended art school in Ipswich where he developed a keen interest in fashion illustration. After war broke out in 1939, Stonehouse’s fluent French made him the ideal candidate to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE) secret service, who sent him to sabotage the German war efforts in France.  Posing as a French art student working for Vogue, Stonehouse spent three and a half months transmitting information back to the British army via a radio concealed in his artist’s box before he was arrested by the Gestapo. Imprisoned immediately, the artist spent the next two-and-a-half years being ferried between Nazi prisons and concentration camps, frequently experiencing torture, solitary confinement, slave labour and, at one stage, a death sentence.  Stonehouse’s artistic talent kept him alive throughout his imprisonment; he charmed his captors by drawing pictures of them and their families, organised performances to distract fellow prisoners and documented the conditions in the concentration camp through harrowing sketches. Later, he made sketches depicting the 1946 War Crimes Tribunals – images which are now exhibited at the Imperial War Museum.  After the war ended Stonehouse, like many other European survivors, emigrated to New York, where he forged a new path as a portrait painter for well-heeled families, socialites and celebrities. His talents were recognised by Jessica Daves, Vogue’s fashion editor, and in 1952 the magazine hired him as a fashion illustrator – the first new illustrator Vogue had hired in over a decade – placing him among the ranks of celebrated artists of the time such as René Bouche, René Gruau and Carl “Eric” Erickson.  There followed 10 “golden years” for Stonehouse as he enjoyed being a part of New York’s elite, partying and holidaying with aristocrats and celebrities whose likenesses he captured in his distinctive style. But developments in colour photography led to the demise of fashion illustration and Stonehouse completed his last assignment for Vogue in 1962.  Today the forgotten art of fashion illustration is enjoying a resurgence as original sketches that survived the cutting room become collectors’ pieces. And to coincide with the publication of a new book that chronicles Stonehouse’s extraordinary experiences, London picture dealers Abbott and Holder are staging a selling exhibition of 40 of the artist’s fashion illustrations.  With prices ranging from £750 to £3,000, the images provide a glamorous run-through of the fashions of post-war America: from tightly-fitted skirt suits to the nipped-in, full-skirted dresses of Christian Dior’s New Look. And, looking at the jewels that adorn these high society ladies in their finery, they also serve as a striking reminder of how far the artist had come.  Brian Stonehouse MBE (1918 – 1998) selling exhibition is at Abbott and Holder from November 14 – December 23
A new exhibition showcases the work of enigmatic artist Brian Stonehouse, whose journey from WWII spy to celebrated Vogue fashion illustrator is worthy of its own blockbuster movie