The 1908-1919 "Le Grand Livre de la Marquise" collection, "widely recognized as the peak of Somov's graphic art" was sold well below pre-sale estimates of $2.2 million-$4.4 million. However, experts believe that the price was still respectable given the ongoing financial crisis.
Isaak Levitan's, The Illumination of the Moscow Kremlin dedicated to the Coronation of Nicolai II (1896), was another successful lot, selling for $1.7 million.
The painting is "not only one of the very rare examples of Levitan's works to depict an image of old Moscow, but also represents an extremely valuable historic document," the auction house said.
The View of Blagoveschensky Bridge and St. Petersburg Embankment (1850-1855), one of the last "famed series of St. Petersburg landscapes" by the Russian landscape painter Maxim Vorobyov went for $832,000.
The most-expensive item at the sale of Russian postwar art, Oleg Tselkov's Boy with Balloons (1957), fetched $366,000.
Analysts say that buyers prefer to invest money into 19th and early 20th century Russian art, while the postwar works are considered risky.
Three days of Russian art sales at MacDougall's have fetched a combined $12.5 million.
Art dealers have said the relatively modest bids at Russian art auctions in London this week have been due to auction houses' unrealistic price tags that failed to take into account the weakened state of Russia's economy. Russia's stock market has lost around 70% of its value since May, curtailing the spending power of many of the country's richest people.
