Liss was born in Oldenburg in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
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.