利斯出生在奥尔登堡（荷斯坦）在石勒苏益格-荷尔斯泰因，德国。在他的家乡最初的教育后，他继续他的学业，根据Houbraken，与亨德里克·霍尔奇尼斯在哈勒姆和阿姆斯特丹。大约1620他通过前往巴黎到威尼斯。他搬到罗马围绕1620至1622年，他的第一部作品也被的风格影响卡拉瓦乔。

虽然他的早期作品与光线和阴影的对比而言，他的最终转会到威尼斯在1620年初修改了他的风格和推动了绚丽的色彩和一个充满活力的治疗绘surface.In 1627年，他创建了一个大的钦佩祭坛的圣杰罗姆的启示在圣尼科洛达托伦蒂诺。他的笔触松动似乎先导，以洛可可风格的瓜 brothers.This最终的风格，与居住在威尼斯，其他的“外来”的画家一起多梅尼科Fetti和贝尔纳多·斯特罗齐，代表了巴洛克风格的第一次大举进入共和国。

利斯逃到维罗纳躲避瘟疫在威尼斯蔓延，但在1629年过早地屈服于有根据Houbraken，他没日没夜地工作在他的画，让约阿希姆·冯·Sandrart觉得他的健康受到威胁，并敦促他加入他在罗马

他的遗产是既感性的画家神话和圣经虔诚的科目，颜色和主巴洛克绘画。他是最有影响力的威尼斯18世纪画家像塞巴斯利玛窦，乔瓦尼·巴蒂斯塔·提埃波罗和乔瓦尼皮亚泽塔。

约阿希姆·冯·Sandrart 1675年写道：“因为他在威尼斯混得不错，他很快就回到那里......他开始于1629年瘟疫期间与许多人一起死”
 

Liss was born in Oldenburg (Holstein) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. After an initial education in his home state, he continued his studies, according to Houbraken, with Hendrick Goltzius in Haarlem andAmsterdam. Around 1620 he travelled through Paris to Venice. He moved to Rome around 1620–1622, and his first works there were influenced by the style of Caravaggio.

Although his earlier work was concerned with the contrasts of light and shadow, his final move to Venicein the early 1620s modified his style and gave impetus to brilliant color and a spirited treatment of the painted surface.In 1627, he was created an admired large altarpiece, the Inspiration of Saint Jerome inSan Nicolò da Tolentino. His loose brushstrokes seem precursor to rococo styles of Guardi brothers.This final style, along with that of other "foreign" painters residing in Venice, Domenico Fetti and Bernardo Strozzi, represent the first inroads of Baroque style into the republic.

Liss fled to Verona to escape the plague spreading in Venice, but succumbed there prematurely in 1629. According to Houbraken, he worked day and night on his paintings, so that Joachim von Sandrart felt that his health was at risk and urged him to join him in Rome

His legacy is as a painter of both sensuous mythological and pious biblical subjects, a master of colors and Baroque painting. He was most influential to Venetian 18th-century painters like Sebastiano Ricci,Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giovanni Piazzetta.

Joachim von Sandrart wrote in 1675 that "because he fared well in Venice, he soon returned there ... he died along with many others during the plague that began in 1629."