Tom Thomson’s vision of Ontario’s oldest park continues to entrance lovers of fine art – particularly those with deep pockets.

Four of Thomson’s works from Algonquin Park were sold last week at an auction in Toronto. The auction, conducted by Heffel Fine Art Auction House, brought in $19 million, making it the second highest priced auction of Canadian art on record.

Northern Lights, a Thomson oil on panel dated Spring 1917, fetched $1.15 million. The painting was one of five paintings and sketches Thomson made of the northern lights, works critic and painter Harold Town described as “a run at an unpaintable subject.” Like many of Thomson’s works, his paintings of the northern lights are both impressionistic and realistic – the location of the stars and the shape of the horizon are so accurate that students of his work have been able to identify fairly clearly where and when the artist sat while making the initial sketches.

Other Thomson works sold at auction include Smoke Lake (oil on panel, sold for $517,500), Wild Cherry Trees in Blossom (oil on board, $1.006 million), and Woodland Interior, Algonquin Park (oil on board, sold for $546,250). The latter is believed to have been painted following a late November trip to Huntsville in 1915, when Thomson stayed at the home of Winifred Trainor.

The auction included two Thomson works unrelated to his time in Algonquin Park.

There were also a number of other notable Canadian painters represented at the auction, including Lauren Harris, David Milne, Jean-Paul Riopelle, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald and Emily Carr.

A full catalogue of the auction can be seen at heffel.com