The collection that got away this season for Sotheby’s was a group of 13 Impressionist and Modern works once owned by Chicago businessman Neison Harris, who died in 2001, and his wife, Bette, who died this summer. Expected to bring in more than $48 million, it landed in Christie’s evening sale, which launches the major fall auctions on November 1.

The Harrises were noted Chicago philanthropists who between 1969 and 1985 bought such works as Pissarro’s “Paysage, la moisson, Pontoise” (1873), Bonnard’s “Compotiers et assiettes de fruits” (c. 1930), Matisse’s “Les marguerites” (1919), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s “La blanchisseuse” (1886-87). Billed as “a private American collection,” it is being sold by “entities of that family,” Christie’s head of Impressionist and Modern art, Christopher Eykyn, said.

Sotheby’s had worked with the Harris family before, and was offered an opportunity in late summer to compete for the collection. But the consignors wanted a guarantee that the house would buy the works if they did not sell above a set price, and that can make for steep estimates. Last season, high reserves – the minimum selling price agreed to by house and consignor – caused many of the works at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern auction to fail to sell.

“It was clear we would have to come up to a financial level that didn’t make sense,” a Sotheby’s department co-chairman, David Norman, said. “When that [estate] was lost, which was really sad, we redoubled our efforts for estates.”

In the Impressionist and Modern field these days, it usually takes a great estate to make a great sale. The John Hay Whitney/Greentree Foundation collection, which brought $189.9 million at Sotheby’s in the spring of 2004, is the prime example. Nothing comes close this fall. Sotheby’s has six works from the collection of Walter and Josephine Buhl Ford, Henry Ford’s granddaughter, estimated to bring $11 million to $15 million, as well as three works from Laurance Rockefeller’s estate. Christie’s is selling Impressionist and Modern holdings from Edward Broida’s collection, worth around $6.2 million, and from the estate of Lee V. Eastman, worth around $12 million. Both those estates also will be represented in the Contemporary sales on November 8 and 9.

As for the Harris collection, “It is one of a few collections of important Impressionist and Modern art still in private hands in the city,” said Chicago dealer Paul Gray, director of Richard Gray Gallery, who last saw the Harris paintings some years ago. “There is yet still more in the collection that they’re not selling.”

The star lot of the week comes from the Harris sale. Lautrec’s “La blanchisseuse,” a portrait of a laundress, is estimated at $20 million to $25 million. Substantial oil-on-canvas paintings by Lautrec don’t come up often, “which is why we are in a whole new price range for him,” Mr. Eykyn said. The artist’s record is $13.2 million, for an oil on board.

“The Lautrec is pretty fantastic,” Mr. Gray said. “I think it’s very speculative as to whether or not it will attain that price.”

In all, Christie’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale next Tuesday is estimated to earn between $135.8 million and $190 million. The following night, Sotheby’s anticipates auctioning $95 million to $132 million worth of art. Last spring was the first time since 2001 that Christie’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale made more – $143 million – than Sotheby’s, which cleared $91 million. That trend looks likely to continue this fall.

Conventional wisdom has it that the supply of masterpieces from the period is drying up, as more and more of the best works end up in museums. But even museums are proving susceptible to the pressures of the market, and they make up a notable portion of sellers this season. The Museum of Modern Art is selling a Picasso, a Henry Moore, and a Kees van Dongen at Christie’s, while the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is sloughing off six works at Sotheby’s, including a Modigliani and a Giacometti. The Art Institute of Chicago is also deaccessioning a Chagall and a Renoir at Sotheby’s, which did offer guarantees for these collections.

“One of the fascinating things is that we’re getting to a point where the deaccessions from a museum are highlights of a catalog,” the vice president of Richard L. Feigen Gallery, Frances Beatty, said.

Museums’ decisions to unload works in order to shore up money for acquisition funds or endowments have come in for criticism over the past two years. Institutions may be particularly attuned to the benefits of selling into a relatively strong market. On the other hand, Mr. Norman said, “We have museums selling every year.”

STAR LOTS OF THE IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN SALES

Christie’s (November 1 & 2)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, ‘La blanchisseuse’ (1886-87). Estimate: $20 million to $25 million. Painted when Lautrec was just 23 and living in Montmartre, this portrait of a redheaded laundress looking out a window was based on a real-life washing girl named Carmen Gaudin. The painter was famously fascinated by the Paris demimonde, but before can-can girls, there was simple social observation. Lautrec also had a thing for redheaded girls. That helps account for his attention to her hair, which contains flecks of green and gold.

Henri Matisse, ‘Les marguerites’ (1919). Estimate: $10 million to $15 million. In 1917 wartime France, visits with an aged Renoir in Nice inspired Matisse to recommit himself to celebrating the senses. A simple array of flowers against a blue screen does the trick.

Pierre Bonnard, ‘Compotiers et assiettes de fruits’ (c. 1930). Estimate: $5 million to $7 million. Cherries and tomatoes arranged on a white tablecloth look like sheer happiness in this late-period Bonnard, which demonstrates the same vivid interest in pattern and color for its own sake as the works of his friend Matisse. A cat and dog hide at the bottom of the picture.

Claude Monet, ‘Nympheas’ (1907). Estimate: $10 million to $15 million. The version of Monet’s lily pond at Giverny has looser brushwork than the highly prized pictures from 1906. The same painting sold for $11.5 million in 1989.

Joan Miro, ‘Le soleil rouge ronge l’arraignee’ (1948). Estimate: $6 million to $8 million. A forceful green background anchors Miro’s abstract creatures and hieroglyphics. The painting, made shortly after the Spanish artist lived in New York for nine months, is in near-pristine condition.

Pablo Picasso, ‘Buveuse accoudee’ (1901). Estimate: $6 million to $8 million. Between this portrait of an absinthe drinker and the moody laundress, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec seem to switch places in this sale, with Toulouse-Lautrec doing his best Rose-period Picasso and a young Picasso drinking in the heady, garish atmosphere of Paris’s wilder cafes.

Sotheby’s (November 2 & 3)

Claude Monet, ‘Le Grand Canal’ (1908). Estimate: $12 million to $16 million. Monet spent several months in Venice in late 1908, during which time he painted six versions of the view of the Santa Maria della Salute from the steps of the Palazzo Barbaro. Unlike some versions with the steps exposed, this painting, which sold for $11.5 million in 1989, has the tidal waters covering the palazzo steps in the foreground, enhancing the sensation of a view onto a floating city. Though he painted outdoors, Monet would later “harmonize” the series in his studio.

Amedeo Modigliani, ‘Buste de Manuel Humbert’ (1916). Estimate: $4 million to $6 million. Modigliani’s portrait of fellow Montparnasse artist Manuel Humbert Esteve features unusually expressive and limpid eyes. It is the second Modigliani portrait of a male artist in this season’s sales, the other being one of Moise Kisling at Christie’s. This one is being sold as part of a group of works being deaccessioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Henri Matisse, ‘Robe jaune et robe arlequin (Nezy et Lydia)’ (1941). Estimate: $9 million to $12 million. The dark-haired Nezy Hamid Chawat and fair Lydia Delectorskaya were two of Matisse’s preferred models. Lydia, in fact, became Matisse’s nursemaid late in life. She wears a harlequin dress which Matisse also painted frequently. “There’s incredible fluidity and spontaneity, but there’s so much thought put into the composition,” a Sotheby’s department co-chairman, David Norman, said.

Pablo Picasso, ‘Nu jaune’ (1907). Estimate: $3 million to $4 million. This gouache on paper of an angular Amazon was a preliminary study for “Demoiselles d’Avignon” executed later that year. She looks straight out of a futuristic sci-fi noir, a femme fatale with legs to here and a take-noprisoners stance.

Conrad Felixmuller, ‘Clemens Braun’ (1931). Estimate: $300,000 to $400,000. Felixmuller executed this portrait of his composer friend shortly before his art was declared degenerate by the Nazis. Short, swift brushstrokes compose the black background, pointing to Felixmuller’s more expressionist roots. The painting is being sold by Sean Connery.

Juan Gris, ‘Nature morte avec bouteille et cigars’ (1912). Estimate: $800,000 to $1.2 million. A small gouache on paper, this early collage is a “beautiful, desirable thing,” the vice president of Richard L. Feigen Gallery, Frances Beatty, said.