{{Short description|American painter}} [[File:Benjamin Trott - Anne Hume Shippen - 1999.87.1 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Anne Shippen]]]] [[File:Benjamin Trott - John Cleves Short - 1999.27.48 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|thumb|200px|John Cleves Short (1792-1863), son-in-law of [[William Henry Harrison]]]] '''Benjamin Trott''' ({{circa|1770}}, in [[Boston]] – 27 November 1843, in [[Baltimore]]) was an American painter who specialized in [[portrait miniatures]].
== Biography == His original source of artistic training is unknown, and he was probably self-taught. He seems to have begun his career as a miniaturist in 1791.<ref name="D">[[William Dunlap]], ''History of the rise and progress of the arts of design in the United States'', Scott, 1834 [https://books.google.com/books?id=F8mLDzLbXxkC&pg=PA414 Online] @ Google Books</ref> His earliest known works are oil portraits of the residents of [[Nottoway County, Virginia|Nottoway]] and [[Amelia County, Virginia|Amelia]] Counties in Virginia; possibly painted in collaboration with William Lovett (1773-1801).<ref name="E">Judith H. Bonner and Estill Curtis Pennington, ''The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Art and Architecture'', UNC Press Books, 2013 {{ISBN|978-08-0786-994-9}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=uj4vqIjD-_AC&pg=PA446 Online] @ Google Books</ref>
In 1793, he was offered advice and assistance by [[Gilbert Stuart]], following the latter's return from Ireland. Of greater influence, however, were the miniatures of Walter Robertson (1750-1802) an Irish painter who had come to America with Stuart.<ref name="D" /> 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]].<ref name="E" /> 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.<ref name="E" /> 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.<ref name="D" /> He also taught drawing at the associated Society of Artists.
Citing the weather, he moved to South Carolina in 1819. His stay was brief, however, and he returned to Philadelphia, where he got married. He seemed to be ashamed of his choice for a wife, as the marriage was never publicly announced. It may have failed. He then relocated to [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]], where he lived in seclusion. Later, he moved to New York, where he attempted to paint full-scale portraits, with little success. In 1833, he returned to Boston, for a time.<ref name="D" /> He moved to Baltimore around 1840.
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. None of his later oils are known to exist.
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * [[John A. Garraty]] and Mark Christopher Carnes, [[American Council of Learned Societies]], [[American National Biography]], [[Oxford University Press]] Vol.21, 1999 {{ISBN|978-0-19-520635-7}} [http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1700870 Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509125508/https://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1700870 |date=2019-05-09 }} @ Google Books * [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], Carrie Rebora Barratt and Lori Zabar, ''American Portrait Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'', 2010 {{ISBN|978-1-588-39357-9}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=YHKoX40qL7EC&pg=PA80 Online] @ Google Books
== External links == {{commonscat|Benjamin Trott}} * [http://www.artnet.com/artists/benjamin-trott/ More works by Trott] @ ArtNet
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Trott, Benjamin}}
[[Category:1770s births]] [[Category:1843 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American painters]] [[Category:American portrait miniaturists]] [[Category:Painters from Boston]] [[Category:American male painters]] [[Category:19th-century American male artists]]