The air fizzed out of the room at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale last night with a soft whimper, as several major paintings failed to sell. With 45 of the 60 works sold, the auction house pulled in $91,294,400, less than half of the sale’s high estimate of $184 million. The most notable bust, Wassily Kandinsky’s “Zwei Reiter und Liegende Gestalt”(“Two Riders and Reclining Figure,” c. 1909-10), was the work with the highest presale estimate ($15-25 million).

“It was tough to get a sale together,” said Sotheby’s co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, David Norman. “We went further on a limb to get works, and it didn’t pay off,” he said, referring to the house’s efforts to pursue Modern over Impressionist works. Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern works is tonight.

Bidders also passed on works by Picasso, Matisse, Leger, Magritte, Maillol, and Pissarro. Chaim Soutine, whose painting of a pastry chef set a record of $9.5 million in London this February, was represented with one of his strikingly color-saturated portraits. But no bidder reached the $4 million estimate, and the work was bought in. Another art-market favorite, Kees van Dongen, stumbled: His painting of a surprisingly happy woman in white, “Venise no. II, Le Manteau de cygne” (c. 1925-30), stalled a couple hundred thousand below the $1.8 million low estimate.

The finest work on offer, Max Beckmann’s “Selbstbildnis mit Glaskugel” (“Self-portrait with Crystal Ball,” 1936), did achieve its high estimate, however, selling to a calmly persistent man in a pinstripe suit for $16.8 million (all prices include the auction house’s commission, which is 20% of the first $200,000 of the sale price, and 12% of the remaining price.) Another Beckmann, the more roughly painted “Perseus’ (Herkules’) Letzte Aufgabe” (“Perseus’ (Hercules’) Last Duty,” 1949) did not reach its $4 million low estimate and was bought in.

The priciest work, Picasso’s sprawling, intertextual boudoir scene, “Les Femmes d’Alger (J)” (1955), sold to New York dealer David Nahmad for $18.6 million. “It’s my third ‘Femmes d’Alger,'” said Mr. Nahmad. There are 15 in the series. “For me, it’s a maximum Picasso,” he said.

This was the second season in a row that a major Kandinsky work at Sotheby’s didn’t find a buyer. Unlike last fall’s pallid cover lot at Sotheby’s, which was even more optimistically priced at $20-30 million, this one came with a dramatic back-story. “Zwei Reiter und Liegende Gestalt,” a painting nearly electric with color, was suddenly discovered two years ago. But that still did not persuade anyone to bid past $11.25 million. Mr. Norman blamed the failure on the house’s high estimate, not the painting. “It was a great painting, a rare painting, but [there was] a simple rejection of the estimate,” he said. “Moderation still is a virtue in some cases.”

One of the sale’s early high points was the flurry of bids for Rodin’s “Eve” (conceived in 1881; cast between 1903 and 1917), which went to a phone bidder for nearly $2.4 million – almost three times its estimate. Two unobjectionable Monets then sold solidly, and a richly tormented Balthus domestic scene went for $1.9 million, comfortably within its estimate. But three works on paper by Juan Gris, Picasso, and Matisse did not meet their estimates and were bought in, giving a preview of the finicky buying that would follow.

Although the two biggest lots went to buyers in the room, most of the bidding was done by phone. Fernand Leger’s “Les Campeurs” (1954), a late painting, was fought over by telephone, eventually selling for a solid mid-estimate $7.632 million. (An earlier abstract Leger never came close to its low estimate of $8 million.) Monet’s leisurely Seine view, “Les Bords de La Seine a Argenteuil,” went to a phone bidder for $4.832 million. Edvard Munch, much beloved by thieves lately, also proved himself to collectors. His large canvas “Sommernatt, Asgardstrand,” (1902) sold within estimate at $4.496 million.

With so few buyers on hand to wave their paddles, it was left to an enthusiastic Japanese couple to provide some genuine excitement. Bidding for Alfred Sisley’s pretty, inoffensive “Route a Veneux” (1886), a Mr. Yamamoto from Tokyo helped his younger business partner, Yugo Nishizawa, fend off one lackluster phone buyer. The bidding stopped at $450,000, just below the estimate with auctioneer Tobias Meyer ready to hand the man his win. He shook his paddle once more to make sure, elated.