She undertook artistic training successively in Basel, Paris and Florence, finishing off at the Fine Arts Academy in Düsseldorf.

In 1881 Lisa Ruutz opened a porcelain painting workshop, targeted on women and young ladies in Basel.

It was only on reaching the age of 46, after establishing herself at nearby Courtételle, that she embarked on the career for which she is today better remembered, as a children's author.

Their daughter Ruth Wenger (1897-1994) became a particularly welcome guest at the "Casa Costanza" (identified in less respectful sources as "the parrot house").

Ruth was twenty years younger than her husband and her first marriage was of short duration: the family attachment to Ticino appears to have lasted better, since it was at Carona that Lisa Wenger died in the autumn/fall of 1941.