Scotland's national galleries are to put female artists to the fore in a new exhibition which will highlight some of the nation's finest, but unknown, creative women.

The names of artists such as Esther Inglis Kello, Catherine Read and Norah Neilson Gray are little known and yet, curators say, played a crucial role in Scottish art since the 17th century.

Now the public will have a chance to discover these artists and others at an exhibition of Scottish Women Artists, which will run at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art next November.

It will contain more than 70 works by female artists from public and private collections.

The galleries believe there is scope for more shows of female artists and the display is a precursor to a major re-think and re-hang of the gallery.

The senior curator in charge of the show, Alice Strang, said the show will be "revelatory, fascinating and inspiring."

The show will feature predominantly painters and sculptors, including Read, who lived in the 18th century, to Amelia Hill and the Nasmyth sisters of the mid-19th century, up until Joan Eardley and Anne Redpath, who both died in the 1960s.

Ms Strang said many of the artists will not be known widely.

She said: "I have nicknamed this the 'who knew?' show of 2015.

"Some of the artists are already known and loved, such as Phoebe Anna Traquair and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. "But quite a few are only known about in 'art circles' and it will be lovely to introduce them to a larger audience.

"For example, Dorothy Carleton Smyth, who was to become the Glasgow School of Art's first ever female director in 1933, but died unexpectedly shortly before taking up the post.

"Norah Neilson Gray and Ethel Gabain painted extraordinary images of World Wars One and Two respectively - I could go on."

Other stories told will include that of Phyllis Bone, who was the first Scottish female artist to be elected a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1944, Dorothy Johnstone, who had to resign her teaching post at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1924 when she got married to Scottish artist DM Sutherland, and Amelia Hill, who was the sister of Joseph Noel Paton, a Scottish artist, and married the pioneering Scottish photographer David Octavius Hill.

Ms Strang said the galleries had been thinking of holding a Scottish women artists show for some time, an idea which was decided upon finally when the galleries were planning the recent Colourist shows.

She said: "My attention kept on being drawn to what Scottish Women Artists (SWA) were up to during that period, particularly between the wars.

"Discussion with National Galleries of Scotland colleagues and a fresh look at the collection inspired by Generation [the nationwide show of contemporary art] has brought it to fruition."

The show will only display work up until the mid-1960s, covering the post-war period.

This, Ms Strang said, is because Redpath died in 1965, with Eardley two years before, and also by 1965, Scottish art schools were co-educational.

She added: "We think it is interesting to trace the development of opportunities for SWA, from a calligrapher and miniaturist who incorporated self-portraits into her work in the 17th Century - Esther Inglis Kello - to a few, often aristocratic, women in the 18th century and early 19th centuries - such as Jemima Wedderburn Blackburn - to the blossoming of women artists training at Glasgow School of Art in the late 19th century, particularly following Fra Newbery's arrival as principal in 1885.

"By 1965, Scottish art schools were co-ed, so in principal women had equal opportunities to train as artists.

"Also, a whole new generation of SWA, born in the 1930s onwards, come to the fore at that point, and lots of others since, which is a story in its own right."

The show, she said, will be a precursor to a complete re-hang of the Scottish Art at the Scottish National Gallery.

The exhibition will be installed on the top floor of the Modern Two building in Edinburgh and be displayed chronologically, focussing on oils and sculptures, with selected miniatures, photographs and other works on paper and some archival material.

It will also be accompanied by a display of prints by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Modern Two's Paolozzi Gallery.

There will also be displays in Modern Two's Gabrielle Keiller Display Library, first on Joan Eardley and then on Scottish Women Printmakers.