South African born artist Marlene Dumas set a new record this month for the most expensive living female artist, when her painting The Visitor, fetched £3.1 million ($6.2million) at a Sotheby’s auction.

Dumas’s painting was sold at the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale held in London on the 1st of July.

The £3,177,250 million bid for the painting surpasses Dumas’ previous record of £1.8 million set in February 2005.

Described by Sotheby’s as a psychologically challenging and strikingly beautiful painting, The Visitor is a large scale (180cm x 300cm) depiction of a group of female streetwalkers.

The painting shows six young sex-workers in a room looking towards a door at the end of the room.

The poses of the women suggest that they are competing for their trade while anticipating the imminent arrival of a client. Since the door is illuminated, the viewer’s attention is also drawn to this door.

Dumas work is well known for its critical approach to social topics such as birth, death, sex, life, race, identity, motherhood and feminism.

As one of the industry’s most celebrated and acclaimed female artists, Dumas’ work has been exhibited in the world’s leading galleries from Paris, London and New York to Madrid, Tokyo and Germany.