Matisse, van Gogh, Rothko Head to Auction

Christie’s will auction dozens of works from the Bass estate next month in New York

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Before Nancy Lee Bass met Texas oilman Perry Richardson Bass at a Fort Worth dance and married him in 1941, her maiden name was Muse. It’s a fitting coincidence for a couple who amassed a classic collection of impressionist and modern art, the bulk of which is heading to auction.

From Vincent van Gogh farm scenes to Mark Rothko abstracts, the Basses filled their Fort Worth home with bright, cheery paintings and sculptures they bought mainly from European dealers between the 1960s and the mid-1980s. At least 35 works from their estate will be auctioned off during Christie’s major fall sales in New York next month. The total estimate for the group: $120 million or more.

Anchoring the set will be van Gogh’s “Farmer in a Field, Saint Rémy,” a lively view of a farmer just after sunrise pushing a plow through a field, its furrows a torrent of yellow, blue and purple slashes. The artist painted it in 1889 after being confined to an asylum; the scene is the view from his window. It’s estimated to sell for around $50 million.

There also is Joan Miró’s “Painting (from Collage), April 4, 1933,” a 5-foot-tall, mostly deep blue painting dotted with floating, biomorphous forms that is estimated to sell for at least $18 million on Nov. 13. Henri Matisse’s 1921 work, “Two Women on a Balcony,” a sunny picture of a pair of women overlooking the coast in the French city of Nice, is estimated to sell for at least $12 million.

Among the contemporary pieces in the group is Mark Rothko’s untitled red-and-yellow rectangle abstract work on paper from 1969, which carries an estimate of at least $10 million. There also are works by Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Kees van Dongen and other artists.

Christie’s president Jussi Pylkkänen said the Bass collection is one of several major estates heading to auction this season, a development that houses can’t exactly predict but nevertheless can signal confidence in the market. That’s because firms liquidating major estates generally wait and sell into strong seasons unless finances compel them to act during a downturn.

“They’re looking at the market, seeing good prices and feeling like it’s the right time to make a move,” Mr. Pylkkanen said of the Bass estate.

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