What with “Gallery Rage” being the latest social affliction, one can hardly get luckier than being taken by Lucian Freud to see exhibitions late in the evening, when the galleries are closed to the public.

Along with a handful of luminaries, Lucian has a key to the National Gallery, and takes friends to study his favourite paintings there any time during the night.

Thus, recently we went after hours, to see the Watteau exhibition at London’s Royal Academy. Watteau is, along with Chardin, an artist Lucian most admires. To see and hear that superlative draughtsman pointing out the relevance and perfection of another’s work is fascinating, instructive, and very moving.

A couple of days later, I went to the opening of Larry Gagosian’s current show in New York. Titled ‘L’amour Fou’, it consists solely of Picasso’s portraits of his first wife Marie-Therese, ranging from delicate Watteauesque sepia drawings to vivid cubist canvasses. It is curated and hung by Picasso and Lucian’s great friend John Richardson, the world expert on both artists.

As John is, to my mind, also the world greatest non-professional decorator, he made Larry’s vast white spaces seem intimate rooms, the paintings colours blending with infinite subtlety. John’s own apartment downtown has the most thrillingly ravishing interiors I know, and reflect his unique eye, wit, and expertise. There are drawings dedicated to John by Picasso, and his portrait by Lucian; there’s probably even a Watteau or two……