Portrait of an officer, three-quarter-length, in scarlet uniform with green facings, holding a cane in his right hand, in a landscape

John Trotter studied at the Dublin Society Schools circa 1756 where, according to the Hibernian Journal, in 1800, 'his genius was in admiration, and he made drawings, unrivalled probably by any master before or since'. Like many other artists of his generation, he also travelled to Rome, in order to learn from first hand experience the technique of the Old Masters, where he stayed for sixteen years (c. 1759-73). On his return from Italy he set up as a portrait painter in Dublin where he showed his work at a various exhibitions, and continued to paint until his death in 1792. He married twice, firstly to Marianne, daughter of his contemporary Robert Hunter, the leading portrait painter of his time in Ireland (see lot 103), by whom he had two daughters.

A full-length portrait of Captain John Alston by the artist was sold at Sotheby's 12 July 1995 for £25,000, and a small-full-length of the Hon. John Theophilus Rawdon Hastings was sold at Sotheby's 25 November 1998 for £28,000. The uniform in this portrait would appear to date it to the 1770s.