The son of portrait painter, Alfred Partridge Klots and Agnes Boon Klotts, Trafford Klots spent much time in Europe with his parents, especially the medieval village of Rochefort-en-Terre in Brittany where they established an art colony.

From 1927-1929, he attended Ecole des Roches and wrote his parents of his studies and activities, but he was not much of a scholar, and these letters like those written from Gilman School in Baltimore, 1929-1932 described his poor performance in all things but art. In 1932, he enrolled at the British Academy in Rome, and between 1933 to 1935, was a student in London at the Shaw School.

After leaving Gilman in 1932, Trafford erolled in the fall of 1932 at the British Academy in Rome, and at from 1933 to 1935, was a student at the Shaw School in London.

For much of his early life, he was at Rochefort-en-Terre with his parents and after his father's death in 1938, carried on the work of promoting the area as an artist colony. After World War II, Trafford Klots and his wife, Isabel, restored the property at Rochefort-en-Terre, and worked together on this effort until his death in 1976.

The French government purchased the Chateau in 1987. In 1989, after Traford's death, his wife, established the Alfred & Trafford Klots Artist Residency Program in memory of her husband and father-in-law. From the time of its inception, it was a summer program, but its beginning with four participants expanded to more artist residencies of one month periods. The program is administered through the Maryland Institute College of Art. In May 2007, the Maryland Institute College of Art held an exhibition featuring the participants in the artist residency program of Chateau Rochefort en Terre.

Papers documenting the life of Trafford Klots are in the Maryland Historical Society.

Source:
Maryland Historical Society