Painter and draughtsman Charles W. Fliess was born Konrad Wilhelm Fleiss into a family probably of Jewish origin in Berlin, Germany in 1899, the son of the otolaryngologist Wilhelm Fliess; his older brother, (Wilhelm) Robert Fleiss, was a psychoanalyst and doctor and later emigrated to America. Konrad Fliess studied as a pupil under Erich Wolfsfeld at the Berlin Academy but, probably on account of racial persecution in Nazi Germany, fled to England in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War, Anglicising his name to Charles. In June 1940 he was exempted from the internment of so-called 'enemy aliens' (although it is not known on what grounds) and served throughout the conflict in the Pioneer Corps, afterwards continuing his painting studies under Clifford Hall at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London between 1947–49. Fliess focused on portraiture, landscape and still life, handled in a painterly manner and demonstrating the legacy of German Expressionism. In 1954 he held a solo exhibition at Derby Art Gallery, also exhibiting with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Artists of Chelsea group (both in 1955) and the National Society (1956). Charles W. Fliess died in England in 1956, at the age of 56. Three of his works were shown posthumously at the National Society exhibition at the Royal Institute galleries the same year, where his work was reviewed by the critic of the Jewish Chronicle, who noted his 'individual line' and that his 'small output showed a happy marriage of intellect and emotion'.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- Alfred East Museum and Art Gallery, Kettering
- Bezalel Museum
- Derby Museum and Art Gallery
- Dudley Museums Service
- Ein Harod Museum
- Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art
- Wolverhampton Art Gallery
RELATED ORGANISATIONS
- Regent Street Polytechnic (student)
- Royal Society of Oil Painters (member)
- Artists of Chelsea (member)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
- Radical and Modest: Work, Leisure and the Everyday, Ben Uri Gallery, London (2005)
- Prints and Drawings from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1989)
- Selections from the Permanent Collection: Watercolours Drawings and Graphics, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1977)
- Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions (6th Collection), Friends of the Art Museums of Israel, Ben Uri Gallery, London (1958)
- The National Society Exhibition, Royal Institute Galleries, London (1956)
- Artists of Chelsea, London (1955)
- Royal Society of Oil Painters, London (1955)
- Derby Art Gallery (1954)
