He painted mainly genre scenes with children. Born in the Dutch East Indies he was deaf and dumb from an early age. At the age of three he left for the Netherlands to live with his grandmother Zoetelief. Educated at a primary School in Rotterdam for the deaf and dumb where he learnt both to speak and to lip read. He returned to the Dutch East Indies in 1884, adding the name Zoetelief, and two years later the whole family came back to the Netherlands. Tromp trained at the Hague Academy of Visual Arts, continuing his studies at the similarly named academy in Amsterdam. He was influenced very much by the Hague School and cemented this affiliation by marrying the daughter of the notable Hague School artist, Bernard Blommers. He ended his days in the village of Breteuil, Normandy.