Such is the story of Brian Stonehouse MBE, whose fashion illustrations showcasing his journey from WWII spy to a celebrated fashion illustrator are the subject of an exhibition at Abbott and Holder Ltd, London, until 23 December.
A young art graduate and aspiring illustrator, Stonehouse joined the Royal Artillery in 1939 Orkney, however in 1941 his commanding officer recommended him for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), secret agents trained to infiltrate Nazi Europe.
The following July, Stonehouse was disguised as “Michel Chapuis”, a French art student, and parachuted into France with a radio hidden in his paint box. He was a prisoner for the next two and a half years, often tortured and placed in solitary confinement and incarcerated in three French prisons and five concentration camps, culminating in Dachau. While in Natzweiler extermination camp, he recognised four well-dressed women being marched to their deaths in the crematorium. Haunted by their faces, a year later he was asked to sketch them – his drawings matched the photographs of four missing SOE agents.
However, his life changed dramatically following a chance encounter during the preparation for the trials with Harry Haller, a socialite American major. Haller supported his move to America in 1946 where he recommended Stonehouse to his friends as a portrait painter. His work caught the eye of Jessica Daves, an editor at Vogue, who thought his style perfect for fashion. In 1952, Stonehouse was the first new illustrator to be taken on by Vogue since 1939. Under Daves as editor-in-chief, he worked alongside the much better known “Eric” (Carl Erickson) and René Bouché.
This was a golden era for fashion illustration but when Diana Vreeland took over at Vogue in 1962, it was largely replaced by photography and Stonehouse left that autumn. While he continued to paint both creatively and commercially, his heyday as a fashion illustrator was over. He was commissioned in 1981 to paint the Queen Mother, they became good friends and his career as a portraitist was briefly revived. In 1998 Stonehouse died of a heart attack.
