The Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) was one of the icons of her generation - painter, model, jetsetter. And in my opinion the greatest female painter that ever lived. Her work, still frequently encountered on posters and Madonna video clips, is amongst the best-known examples of cool Art Deco. Her unique style, in which portraits dominate, has been described quite aptly as soft cubism. More on de Lempicka in the wikipedia article linked to below.
