A selection of major works from the William S. Paley Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York will be featured in an exhibition opening this fall. A pioneering figure in the modern entertainment, communication and news industries, Mr. Paley (1901–1990) was a founder of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and a dedicated philanthropist and patron of the arts. The Paley Collection, which includes paintings, sculpture and drawings, ranges in date from the late 19th century through the early 1970s.

Particularly strong in French Post-Impressionism and Modernism, the collection includes multiple works by Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, as well as significant works by Edgar Degas, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Andre Derain, Georges Rouault and artists of the Nabis School such as Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard.

Among the works that will be exhibited at the de Young are Gauguin'sThe Seed of the Areoi (1892), an important female nude from the artist's first trip to Tahiti; Cezanne's Milk Can and Apples(1879-80); Degas’ exquisite pastel Two Dancers(1905); Derain's dynamic Fauve painting Bridge over the Riou(1906); Picasso's celebrated Boy Leading a Horse(1905-06); Matisse's masterpiece Woman with a Veil (1927) and Francis Bacon’s Study for Three Heads(1962).