This painting depicts a famous scene from Samuel Johnson's life. Oliver Goldsmith once wrote to his good friend Johnson, asking him to come to his aid.
Goldsmith had been arrested by his landlady for non-payment of rent. Johnson hastened over, and Goldsmith told him that he had a novel ready for publication. James Boswell reports that Johnson said that he: 'looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill.'.
