Benjamin Trott (painter)

[1] His earliest known works are oil portraits of the residents of Nottoway and Amelia Counties in Virginia; possibly painted in collaboration with William Lovett (1773-1801).

[1] In 1795, Trott accompanied (or followed) Stuart when he went to Philadelphia, which served as his headquarters for many years; interrupted only by a painting trip to Lexington, Kentucky.

[2] After 1808, he frequently shared a home with Thomas Sully, who may have introduced him to the merchant, Benjamin Chew Wilcocks (1776-1845), a major patron.

[2] The two eventually had a falling out during a dispute between local artists and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where Trott held several major exhibitions.

He was apparently obsessed with the idea that some artists had a secret chemical process for applying pigments to ivory and, throughout his life, spent many hours conducting alchemical experiments.