Edward Lis, 96, painter of landscapes, portraits

Edward V. Lis, 96, of Gulph Mills, an artist who learned to paint as a prisoner of war in World War II, died on Thursday, Dec. 29, at home.

Mr. Lis painted portraits of many prominent people, including Cardinal John Krol and several presidents of the Union League of Philadelphia. The Navy commissioned a painting of the aircraft carrier Saratoga from him.

As a landscape artist, he worked in oils and watercolors, painting scenes in Maine and Colorado, as well as in Cape May, the Poconos, and Conshohocken, where one critic admired how he captured the "sun glow" on the facades of rowhouses.

Over the years, Mr. Lis taught classes at women's clubs, the Wayne Art Center, the Chester County Art Center, and until two years ago, the Norristown Art League. Although he was losing his vision, students loved his lectures, his daughter, Libby Seybert, said.

He could no longer paint with "his usual incredible attention to detail," she said, but his art was still impressive. He was working on a landscape for his son when he died.

Mr. Lis had more than 40 one-man shows, and his work appeared in numerous group exhibits. Among the venues were the Woodmere Museum, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, London University, the Berman Museum at Ursinus College, and Drexel University.

In 1993, his paintings were chosen for the opening exhibit at the new gallery at the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington.

Growing up in Tartakow, Poland, Mr. Lis was exposed to the brush and easel by his father, a policeman and amateur painter. He was more interested in aviation, however, and earned a glider pilot's license at 16.

Mr. Lis was a lieutenant in the Polish army when the Germans invaded in 1939. He was placed in a work camp in Bavaria, where he contracted scarlet fever and lost a third of his body weight.

"Prison conditions were almost intolerable and the daily food ration pitifully small, but six of the foremost artists of Poland were among my fellow captives, and they took a kindly interest in my work," he later told The Inquirer. The men got art supplies from the Red Cross, and he was in demand to paint postcard-size portraits of other inmates to send home to their families.

After the war, Mr. Lis studied art at the University of Leicester in England and was awarded a grant to the Sir John Cass Art School of the University of London. One of his early commissions was a portrait of August Zaleski, a former president of the Polish government in exile in England.

Mr. Lis immigrated to the United States in 1951, sponsored by his cousin Frank Piasecki, a pioneering helicopter manufacturer.

That year, Mr. Lis' "Paintings of England" were shown at the Abbott Gallery in Philadelphia. An Inquirer critic wrote, "Lis is a skillful craftsman who can capture light and air in a landscape and the contours of a face with a quiet unobtrusive charm."

In 1955, Mr. Lis married Marjorie van Roden. She supported his art, organizing exhibits, chauffeuring him to classes, and serving tea and lemon meringue pie to clients, their daughters said.

Mr. Lis had a passion for gardening and kept his enthusiasm for flying. In his 80s, he became involved with a glider club in Bucks County. A pilot would take the plane airborne, then give him the controls. He described the experience as "closest to being in heaven," his daughter said.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Lis is survived by a son, Edward Jr., and two grandsons. His wife died in 2001.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 6, at Sacred Heart Church, 120 Jefferson St., Bridgeport.

Donations may be made to Neighborhood Hospice, 400 E. Marshall St., West Chester, Pa. 19380.