Fischer studied at the NSW Academy of Art from 1875 to 1879.

He worked for the Illustrated Sydney News and contributed to the Town and Country Journal in the 1880s, but is best known for his Bulletin cartoons during the 1890s. He helped illustrate Steele Rudd’s On Our Selection, first published as a serial in the Bulletin in 1899. He designed a number of covers for Bookfellow in 1899.

Fischer travelled to London and Europe in 1900 for 16 months, attending the Westminster School of Art in London (where he was awarded a first-class certificate for painting and drawing), and l’Académie Julian and Colarossi in Paris. In London, he sold some art to magazines such as The King and The Sphere.

While Fischer had exhibited landscapes and figure studies from as early as 1883, he increasingly focused on painting and fine art, regularly entering work in Australian art exhibitions, including a self portrait for the Archibald Prize in 1930.

From 1902 until around 1910, he was instructor to students' classes of the Art Society of NSW, working with Anthony Dattilo Rubbo from 1908. In 1912, Fischer advertised evening art classes by himself in Ryde.

He contributed black and white art to Rowlandson’s Success (1907-1908) and The Comic Australian. He illustrated several anthologies and books for the NSW Bookstall Company during the first decade of the century.

He appears to be the 'Fischer' who contributed illustrations for short stories in The Australian Woman's Weekly in the 1930s.