What would Emily Carr have made of a $1.6 million sale?

Last week we told you what a $3.6 million photo looks like.

Now comes the news that another B.C. artist, this one long deceased, has just fetched $1.6 million for a painting.

At Heffel's Spring 2012 Auction of Canadian art, Emily Carr's well-known 1930 oil painting Eagle Totem fetched that amount. It had been estimated that it would go for $600,000 to $800,000.

That's the second-highest amount her work has ever nabbed. In 2009, also at Heffel's, her Wind in the Treetops took a record $2.1 million.

In all, Carr's work commanded $2.8 million in sales at the latest auction.

Was there ever any doubt about her stature in the art world? And what would the woman, who was happiest in her primitive caravan in the woods, have thought about all this?

The auction started off with West Coast modernist B.C. Binning’s Two Ships Standing Off going for $64,350.