In a statemenet, Tate Britain described Rego and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, a first major exhibition of whose work is to be shown in May 2020, as "two of the most important figurative painters of their generations”.

The Rego retrospective is to encompass her entire career, with paintings, drawings and engravings, according to the gallery.

The #5womenartists campaign was launched on social networks by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. to coincide with Women’s History Month, to urge people to nominate five female artists.

Rego is in the meantime to be the subject of another retrospective, inaugurated on 15 June at the Milton Keynes Gallery, also in the UK, in partnership with Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, and with the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin – the first time a retrospective of Paula Rego is exposed in Scotland and In Ireland. The show, titled ‘Obedience and Defiance’, features works going back to the 1960s, including some paintings never exhibited before.

It is to run in Milton Keynes until 22 September, before reopening in Edinburgh from 23 November to 19 April of next year.

Rego was born in Lisbon in 1935 but left Portugal as a teenager to study at London’s Slade School of Art. She has lived in the UK for more than 50 years, though visiting Portugal often.

The only female artist of the so-called London School, Rego is known for her strongly figurative work with many literary references, which critics view as incisive and singular.