I have wanted to write about Andrew Sayers for some time, ever since his premature death aged 58 in October.   He was the Director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra from 1998 to 2010, built it up as an institution, and was responsible for overseeing their immensely impressive new building.   He was from Yorkshire, worked for a long time at the National Gallery of Australia, was a scholar of Australian art, and made the Australian National Portrait Gallery into an institution at the heart of Australian life (Australians have a different relationship to portraits).   He left Canberra for Melbourne after a brief and probably unsatisfactory period as Director of the Museum of Australia and devoted himself to painting which he did with total single mindedness.   I last saw him for lunch at Heide.   After being diagnosed with cancer, he travelled through Europe visiting the greatest works of art for the last time.   Today there is a memorial event in the NPG in Canberra.   I wish I could be there to honour him.