The Royal Academy of Arts in London will present the most significant survey of Australian art ever mounted in Britain, and Prince Charles will be the show's patron.

The show, announced by the academy on Thursday night, will open in September, just weeks after the closing of a major exhibition of Turner works from London's Tate Modern in Canberra.

Spanning 200 years, the exhibition will focus on the influence of the landscape on Australian artists, and will feature more than 200 works, including paintings, drawings, photography, watercolours and multimedia.

The works will be drawn from the most important public collections in Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and most have never been seen in Britain before.

The show will demonstrate how Australian art is inextricably linked to its landscape, with works by some of the first colonial settlers, as well as immigrant artists of the 20th century and contemporary Aboriginal art, alongside the work of some of today's most established artists.

Those featured include Albert Namatjira and Emily Kame Kngwarreye, impressionists Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts, early modernists such as Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith, and prominent 20th century painters Arthur Boyd, Brett Whitely and Sidney Nolan.

The exhibition will end in the present day, with internationally recognised artists such as Bill Henson, Tracey Moffatt and Shaun Gladwell. Highlights will include four paintings from Nolan's Ned Kelly series, Rover Thomas' Cyclone Tracy, and Gladwell's video Approach to Mundi Mundi.

In an academy press release, National Gallery director Ron Radford said the partnership was an important opportunity for Australia. ''This partnership … is a great opportunity to present Australia's strong visual arts tradition, particularly that of land and landscape, both indigenous and non-indigenous, to audiences in Europe,'' he said.

Australia will open at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, London, on September 21 and run until December 8.