Oliver Goldsmith, writer and poet, was born into a family with strong ecclesiastical connections at Pallas, near Ballymahon in Ireland. It was not long before he took an interest in rhyme and the work of the local poets and he is known to have written street ballards to supplement his income while studying at Trinity College, Dublin. However, he was unsettled in Ireland and moved to Edinburgh in 1752 before embarking on a tour of the Continent the following year. There is no doubt that Goldsmith was both a popular and colourful character. He told good stories, played the flute, made many friends, occasionally incurred gambling debts and on one occasion was imprisoned on suspicion of being sympathetic towards the French. He was, however, almost constantly beset by financial difficulties. Arriving in London in 1756, Goldsmith took a number of different jobs and set up briefly as a physician, but concentrated on writing after failing a medical exam in 1758. He formed connections with booksellers and contributed numerous articles to reviews and periodicals in the following years which brought him some notice.
A milestone in Goldsmith's career occured in 1761 when, having complimented Samuel Johnson in The Bee, the two men met and befriended each other. Johnson's opinion of the writer grew to the extent that in 1763 he described him to Boswell as 'one of the first men we now have as an author'. It was through Boswell that Goldsmith and Reynolds met and soon developed a close friendship and in June 1764, when Boswell set up his famous club which met at the Turk's Head Tavern in Soho, Reynolds and Goldsmith were founder members along with Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Charles Burney, James Boswell, Joseph Bankes and Edward Gibbon. Literary successes such as The Citizen of the World (1762), The Traveller (1764) and The Vicar of Wakefeld (1766) greatly enhanced Goldsmith's reputation and brought him into contact with important patrons such as Robert Nugent (later Viscount Clare) and the Earl of Northumberland. Further works such as The Deserted Village and She Stoops to Conquer followed to great acclaim but despite these successes Goldsmith's financial situation rarely improved. On his death in April 1774, Reynolds, who was then perhaps his closest friend, believed he owed not less than #2,000. A much loved man, Northcote records that his death was 'the severest blow Sir Joshua ever received - he did not paint all that day'. Buried in the Temple, Reynolds organised for the monument to Goldsmith to be erected in Westminster Abbey.
Henry Thrale, a prosperous brewer and Member of Parliament, frequently played host, with his wife, to members of Johnson's literary circle. It was in the Thrale house in Streatham that the present picture, together with twelve other portraits of their favorite guests, all by Reynolds, first hung. While Waterhouse (op. cit.) records our picture as being the first version, it is now known to have been painted after the picture now at Knole which, together with a companion portrait of Johnson, was commissioned by the Duke of Dorset and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1770.
Sittings for the two pictures are rather confused as there are several appointments in 1768/9 some of which fall outside daylight hours or are with no specific time given. In the recent Reynolds exhibition catalogue, Nicholas Penny argues that, as with Johnson and Burke, we must surely suppose that Goldsmith knew the artist well enough to make chance calls without a formal appointment.
The composition was followed by Wilkie in his portrait of Sir Walter Scott, (Edinburgh, Parliament Hall).