Tate Britain's Now You See Us: 10 firsts of extraordinary women artists in Britain, abandoned by art history

When Mary Black charged £25 for a commissioned portrait in 1764 – half of what a man would expect to be paid – she was met by outrage from the sitter.

Despite her being a professional artist, physician Messenger Monsey bemoaned her request to be compensated in correspondence with his cousin in which they called “saucy” for asking for money, that her reputation would be sullied and ultimately labelling her “a slut”.

Tabitha Barber, Tate Britain’s curator of British art, 1500 to 1750, says, “It’s just a remarkable indication of how difficult it was for women trying to maintain this line between having a commercial career and being a gentlewoman.”

This is just one example of the many hurdles that women have faced in the centuries-long battle to forge a career in the arts. Balancing ambitions against societal restrictions, professional women artists – the first of whom can be traced back to the 16th century – were often seen as amateurs, associated with still-life paintings of flowers or fruits at best.

But slowly, over time, women were able to build careers in art, some were even celebrated: the first woman to practise painting professionally, Joan Carlile, was born in 1606; two women, Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, were founding members of The Royal Academy in 1768; in the period 1760–1830, there had been as many as 900 women exhibited in public exhibitions in London.

Indeed, the of women professional artists is no straightforward story – with celebrated artists in their time being written out of history. But , with a new collection of 110 paintings by women artists from 1520 to 1920, aims to