TORONTO — An oil sketch by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris sold at auction Thursday night for $3.5 million, the second-highest price ever paid for a painting in Canada.

"The Old Stump, Lake Superior" was one of four Harris paintings that went for over a million dollars -- after factoring in a 17 per cent buyer's premium -- at the Heffel fall art auction in Toronto, which also ended up ranking as the second-most lucrative sale in Canadian art history.

The 30-by-38-centimetre painting was a sketch for one of Harris's most important works, "North Shore, Lake Superior," which hangs in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

"Going into the auction we knew the quality was so strong and ... when you get paintings that are groundbreaking paintings then the normal rules don't apply," said a clearly happy Robert Heffel, moments after the Harris paintings were sold.

Harris's "Houses, St. Patrick Street" sold for $2.8 million, putting it fourth on the list of the most expensive Canadian works, which is dominated by his paintings.

He commands half the Top 10 list, and also holds the No. 3, No. 6, and No. 8 spots.

"Lawren Harris was one of the truly great North American painters of the first half of the 20th century and Harris deserves the values that we see at auction," said Heffel, who runs the auction company with his brother David Heffel.

He said Thursday's auction proves the recession hasn't put much of a damper on the Canadian art market, which "remains very strong."

Another big sale was the purchase of the Tom Thomson painting "Early Spring, Canoe Lake," which created the first major buzz of the evening as bids soared to more than three times the estimated sale price.

When the gavel finally came down after a spirited round of bidding, the price hit $2.35 million. With the buyer's premium, the price was pushed to almost $2.75 million, the most ever paid for a Thomson painting.

It was briefly No. 3 on the list of Canada's most expensive paintings until the Harris sales pushed it down to the fifth spot.

The sale of the Thomson painting was also special because the proceeds will be donated to charities by an anonymous Canadian philanthropist, along with the proceeds from seven other works, said Robert Heffel.

"It's a great story," he said, noting that one of the charities will be the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

"Proceeds go to various different charities and at the same time, the collector got the prize."

The auction was bolstered by a slate of 15 especially impressive works that were put on the block by the estate of Helen E. Band, daughter of Canadian art collector Charles Band.

Among them were the big Harris paintings and one by fellow Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson. In total, they all sold for $10.5 million.

"We knew the auction was going to do very well because of the quality of the work ... we were honoured they chose us -- and they made the right decision," Robert Heffel said, adding that it will be "very difficult" to ever match Thursday's auction.

"A Charles Band collection like that probably comes up once in a lifetime," he said.

The most expensive painting to ever sell at auction in Canada is still Paul Kane's "Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy," which went for $5.06 million in 2002, including a buyer's premium.

The most lucrative Canadian art auction to date was the Heffel spring auction in 2007, which garnered more than $23 million. Thursday's auction was expected to bring in between $11 million to $15 million but topped $20.8 million.

The Globe and Mail reported it was art collector and dealer Ash Prakash who bought "The Old Stump, Lake Superior."