Stonehouse was an SOE agent during the Second World War and was first employed by American Vogue in 1952. He was initially trained at Ipswich School of Art in the mid-1930s.
However, he was already known in the US when he arrived in 1947 as a British secret agent who had survived four concentration camps including Mauthausen and Dachau, where he had been forced to produce portraits of the Nazi guards.
After moving to the US, he developed his portraiture working in Boston and Hollywood society. It was then he caught the eye of Vogue editor Jessica Daves who commissioned him during some of the peak years of fashion illustration.
The works in Abbott and Holder’s show span his years at the magazine from 1952-63. Many were destroyed in a fire, but the collection remains remarkably large for fashion illustrations of the period which had to endure editorial treatment and required room for storage.
More than 40 works from the artist’s estate are included in the show, which takes place at Abbott and Holder’s gallery across from The British Museum.
