Freud misses his big opening

The only person missing was the artist whose unflinching genius they all came to honour.

Britain's "greatest living painter" Lucian Freud, 79, was at home painting - perhaps working on his portrait of pregnant supermodel Kate Moss - when his lovers, muses, subjects and friends crowded into Tate Britain last night to celebrate his major retrospective.

Freud's girlfriend, 27-year-old former gossip columnist Emily Bearn, was there but was reluctant to share her opinions. However, many of his earlier subjects were more forthcoming.

Jerry Hall, who sat for Freud when very pregnant, said: "It was the last month of my pregnancy and I was getting fatter all the time. Sitting for Lucian was a lovely experience. It was really interesting. We talked so much about art. He is my favourite painter - and I bought the picture." Freud's novelist daughter, Esther, who features in a number of the Tate exhibits, said: "I came quite early and I was just staring at each painting feeling as if the world was receding as I looked at them ... It was so much I had to come out half way through and have a very large cocktail before going back in."

Esther's sister, Jaeger designer Bella Freud, showed her film star friend John Malkovich around the show. Malkovich, who is to appear in a fashion film for Ms Freud, clearly enjoyed her father's craft. He said: "I'd like to come back and see the show when nobody is here."

That, though, is unlikely, as it promises to become one of the Tate's most popular when it opens to the public tomorrow.

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