Edouard Manet's self-portrait sells for £22.4 million at Sotheby's

Sotheby's employees display Edouard Manet's self-portrait earlier this month

A rare self-portrait of the artist Edouard Manet holding a palette and paintbrush sold for £22.4 million ($33.2 million), at Sotheby's in London on Tuesday.

The 1878-79 painting, "Self Portrait of Manet, A Bust (Manet and a Palette)," broke the artist's auction record. It also anchored Sotheby's £112.1 million evening sale of Impressionist and modern art and kicked off London's two-week round of summer art auctions.

Sotheby's total more than tripled the £33.5 million the auction house got at a similar sale last June—a sign the art market is on the mend. But fresh jitters in London over the country's recession-related debts may have taken a toll as few collectors seemed eager to bid above the house's high asking prices, particularly for the sale's priciest pieces. The Manet, for instance, was priced to sell for between£20 million toand £30 million.

Bidding was more brisk for Andre Derain's candy-colored Fauve landscape, "Trees in Collioure," which sold for £14.5 million, inching over its £14 million high estimate. Henri Matisse's Moroccan-inspired view of two women, "Two Women Playing Odalisques," also sold for £10.5 million, just over its £10 million low estimate.

Chaim Soutine's cherry-colored portrait of a valet, "The Room Servant," sold for £7.8 million, over its £7 million low estimate. And a still life by Manet, "Bouquet of Peonies," sold for £7.7 million.

A pair of calm-inducing drawings that Pablo Picasso made of his mistress Dora Maar in 1937 fared surprisingly well, with "Portrait of a Pensive Dora Maar" selling for £993,250 and "Portrait of Dora Maar Sleeping" selling for £1.2 million—twice their low estimates. A drawing by Matisse, "Study for 'Rose Nude,' " also sparked a lively bidding war, with a telephone bidder getting it. It sold for £5.9 million. It was priced to sell for as much as₤£2.5 million.

But the night had its wincing share of casualties, led by Claude Monet's "Flowers at Vetheuil." The artist's 1881 riverbank pastoral was expected to sell for at least £4 million but found no takers. Neither did 15 other works by artists like Paul Cezanne, Kees van Dongen, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, and Joan Miro.

Rival Christie's counters Wednesday with its eveningsale of Impressionist and modern art.