Hans Fries was a Swiss painter before the Reformation.
Fries was born in Fribourg, the son of a baker, and studied with the Bernese painter Heinrich Bichler. After a stay in Basel in the year 1487/88, he returned to his hometown. Here he held the official post of city painter in the first decade of the 16th Century and was in addition a councilman. During this time he designed and painted many altars. Around 1510 he moved to Berne where he lived until his death.