Tate Britain's survey of Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 (the subtitle of the current exhibition) is so brilliantly put together that I think it deserves proper consideration. Although you could see everything in one go, enjoying whatever grabs your attention (which is what I usually do), Now You See Us would reward repeated visits - so that is what I shall do.

This first talk will look at artists from the 16th to the 18th Centuries, starting with the well-documented Lavina Teerlinc, who worked for most of the Tudor monarchs. We will then move on to the by-now well-known Artemisia Gentileschi, who was summoned to the Court of Charles I - and the works represented include the recently rediscovered painting Susannah and the Elders from the Royal Collection. We will also look at British-born women who were active in the 17th Century, and continue up to the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768. This could have been a turning point, given that two women were appointed as founder members (although history inevitably proves otherwise).  

Angelica Kauffman has recently been the focus of attention at the Academy itself, and is also well-represented by Tate - indeed, the exhibition opens with one of her works, her personification of Invention. This is a fantastic choice, given that Invention  was the quality that men always asserted women did not have, and this gave them the excuse to ignore their female contemporaries.

Mary Moser, the other female founder, is less well known than Kauffman, perhaps because fewer of her works survive - or have yet to be identified. However, Tate are showing more than the two works with which I was familiar: the exhibition will undoubtedly help to put her more fully on the map. 

Some of the artists I have talked about before: it is fantastic see a whole wall of paintings by the 17th Century Mary Beale, for example. And then there are the artists who are, perhaps, less familiar (to me at least) - such as Mary Grace, Mary Black and Katherine Read, who gave the 18th Century male portraitists a run for their money.