Vincent van Gogh’s much-touted portrait “L’Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux” (1890) fetched the highest price in Christie’s auction of Impressionist and Modern Art last night, but it was among the evening’s biggest disappointments. Estimated to earn between $40 million and $50 million, it sold for $40.3 million to a telephone buyer after tepid bidding. Still, it was the fourth highest price at auction for a Van Gogh.

All told, the sale took in $180.3 million, which the house said was its highest total for an Impressionist and Modern sale since 1990, and its second-highest ever. Eighty-six percent of the 50 works offered sold. Despite the impressive total, bidding was sporadic, particularly for works by Renoir and Monet.

“It is a strong market without being a crazy market,” the honorary chairman of Christie’s America and the night’s auctioneer, Christopher Burge, said. He characterized the buyers, 51% of whom were American, as bidding “carefully and intelligently.”

Another disappointment was the price, relative to presale expectations, earned by Paul Gauguin’s “Vase de fleurs et gourde” (after 1890). It sold for $4.5 million, $5.5 million below its high estimate, after only two bidders on the phone went for it.

“The Gauguin not selling for close to its estimate was absurd,” a New York art adviser, Thea Westreich, said, characterizing the bidding as “arrhythmic.”

Two paintings by Picasso energized the room, however. “Le Repos” (1932), a swirling mass of colors representing his wife, inspired several bidders, including the dealer Jeffrey Deitch, to push past $16 million. Once it reached $27 million, it was being pursued solely by another dealer, Larry Gagosian, and a determined phone bidder. Mr. Gagosian won the painting for $34.7 million, well above its presale estimate of $15 million to $20 million.

“The price on the Picasso was spectacular for a Surrealist picture,” a Chicago-based dealer, Paul Gray, said. Another Picasso, the haunting blue-period work “Portrait de Germaine” (1902),sold for $18.6 million,just above its presale estimate, to a phone bidder.

In addition to Picasso, who seemed to be in a category of his own, buyers jumped at such modern artists as Wassily Kandinsky, Tamara de Lempicka, Georges Braque, and Henry Moore, whose 20th-century works seemed like bargains compared to the Impressionists. Kandinsky’s “Pfeile (Arrows)” (1927), a pristine, geometric abstraction of arrows and circles floating near an arrow-like tower, sold for $3.9 million, more than double its high estimate.

There was a muted tone to the evening,however,especially in contrast to the packed rooms and heated bidding typical of recent auctions of Postwar and Contemporary art. The high prices for Picasso and van Gogh point to the limited pool of collectors who can afford their best works.

“One or two very strong lots doesn’t make for a very strong market,” Ms. Westreich said, adding that next week’s sales of Postwar and Contemporary art would generate more excitement. “It’s a question of style and fashion, not content.”

Sotheby’s expects to earn up to $197 million tonight, when it will hold its sale of Impressionist and Modern art.

STAR LOTS OF LAST NIGHT’S SALE

Vincent van Gogh L’Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux (1890)
Presale estimate: $40 million to $50 million Sold for: $40.3 million Gauguin drew her first, but van Gogh immortalized this tolerant proprietress of a night cafe in six oil portraits based on Gauguin’s drawing. This one, the last in private hands, is arguably the finest: Her hair looks like it was done by a Japanese woodblock master and the woven cross-hatches in the background wallpaper nod to van Gogh’s own drawings.

Pablo Picasso Le repos (1932)
Presale estimate: $15 million to $20 million Sold for: $34.7 million Picasso’s first wife, Olga, was the subject of this almost abstract portrait. But he went on to paint his mistress, Marie-Therese, in similar colors just two days later.

Pablo Picasso Portrait de Germaine (1902)
Presale estimate: $12 million to $18 million Sold for: $18.6 million This moody, blue-period portrait is of a young married woman in Barcelona who had a brief affair with the 20-year-old Picasso. In the year before the portrait was painted, a lovesick friend of Picasso’s tried to shoot Germaine, then killed himself over her refusal to leave her husband.

Claude Monet Nympheas, temps gris (1907)
Presale estimate: $10 million to $15 million Sold for: $11.2 million Monet started his water lily series in 1906 and kept working at it nearly until his death in 1926. Another 1907 “Nympheas,” also characterized by a long vertical clearing above the pond, sold for $14 million last season at Christie’s.

Pablo Picasso Tete de femme (Dora Maar) (1937)
Presale estimate: $5 million to $7 million Sold for: $5.6 million Christie’s cheerily colored Dora Maar – as opposed to the 1941 portrait estimated to sell for $50 million at Sotheby’s tonight – was painted just months after Picasso finished “Guernica.” Not that he left all the aggression out: He made his new lover, the Surrealist photographer Maar, look as if she had a cleft palate.

Henry Moore Large Four Piece Reclining Figure (1972-73)
Presale estimate: $5 million to $7 million Sold for: $5.1 million The priciest sculpture in the sale, this 8-foot long late work looks like an assembly of hip and head bones.

Paul Gauguin Vase de fleurs et gourde (after 1890)
Presale estimate: $7 million to $10 million Sold for: $4.5 million The Tahitian figure lurking in the background of this warm still life marks its date as after 1890, even though previous guesses had it at 1886. Gauguin painted over an earlier canvas and left the remnants of it as the edge of the table, in a kind of prepostmodern flourish.

Tamara de Lempicka Groupe de quatre nus (c. 1925)
Presale estimate: $2 million to $3 million Sold for: $3.2 million These four women writhing together appeal to both classical and prurient tastes. The Russian-born, Paris-based painter Lempicka fulfills fantasies while referring to Ingres’s harem pictures.

(Final prices include the auction house’s commission, which is 20% of the first $200,000 of sale price, plus 12% of the remaining price.)