"Emerald Lake," by Canadian painter Lawren Harris is shown in a handout photo

A Lawren Harris sketch bought for just $70 back in the 1950s fetched $175,000 Monday to become the biggest seller at the Sotheby's Canada spring auction.

"Mts: Emarald Lake" (sic), an oil on board depicting snow-capped peaks in British Columbia, went to an unidentified bidder in the room, reaching the high end of its pre-sale estimate. The $175,000 included the buyer's premium.

Measuring 30 by 38 centimetres, the piece had been bought by a woman at the Group of Seven artist's studio in Toronto in 1955, said Bert Dorpmans, the work's appraiser.

She never exhibited it before passing it on to her son less than five years ago. He and his wife, who live north of Toronto, decided to sell the sketch in Monday's auction so it would be properly taken care of, added Dorpmans.

"Having no children, they were quite concerned about this painting ending up in a garage sale," Dorpmans, who works with McMaster Framing and Gallery in Dundas, Ont., said in an interview, adding the couple chose to remain unidentified.

Sotheby's, in association with Ritchies, moved 70 per cent of its lots Monday for total sales of $3.5 million, including the buyers' premiums.

That's short of its pre-sale estimate of $4 million to $5.5 million.

Sotheby's fall sale in November - in which a Harris was also the biggest seller - also failed to reach its pre-sale estimate, but Sotheby's Canada president David Silcox remains optimistic.

"Given the economic times, we've done really quite well," Silcox said in an interview after Monday's sale.

"I've been keeping an eye on the international art auctions - some have done a little bit better ... but a lot of them have done a lot worse," he added. "So I think we're actually seeing in Canada a kind of stability that the art market here has shown over the years, which is kind of a steady growth and nothing too wildly spectacular."

Other big sellers at Monday's auction included another Harris panel, "North of Lake Superior," which sold for $100,250.

Jean Paul Lemieux's 1963 canvas "Rue a Sillery," went for $152,500.

"Le Vieux Pionnier," also known as "Pere Esdras Cyr," by Marc-Aurele de Foy Suzor-Cote, fetched $140,500.

And Alfred Joseph Casson's "Hazy October Morning" reached $111,750.

Several bigger-ticket items failed to sell, including Emily Carr's "Cathedral," which had the largest pre-sale estimate at $150,000-$250,000.

Some works fetched well over their estimates, including "Dutch Village Square" by James Wilson Morrice. It went for $71,500, including the buyer's premium - about double what was expected.

A total of 142 lots were up for grabs, which is a smaller number than usual.

Veteran Winnipeg-based dealer David Loch said that overall the auction was also "weak as far as the content of the paintings."

"You have to remember what we've gone through in the last little while," he said. "People would be very reluctant to put great paintings up for auction this time unless they had to ..."

"Why would you put something into an auction where the market is feeling a bit abused or hurt or whatever?"

Canada's fine-art market is also going through a price correction on previously overhyped paintings, says art collector Ash Prakash.

"The amazing thing that we have learned, even in this market, is that when something rare shows up, it will still stand up, but mediocrity will bring nothing forward, both in results and in interest," he said.

"There are certain iconic painters in Canadian art and the fact is, economic depression or recession aside, their work is genuinely, genuinely scarce, and when it shows up it will do well. It's the stuff in the middle that is subject to fluctuations based on the quality and the economic conditions."