From 1510 onward, Graf participated as a mercenary on campaigns in northern Italy and Burgundy. He dedicated numerous drawings to the life of soldiers and of the camp. This study of a figure seen from behind, executed with rapid strokes of the pen, was probably from a live model. The slits in the back of his uniform in the shape of a Swiss cross suggest the mercenary is a Swiss Reisläufer, the Swiss equivalent of the German Landsknecht (lansquenet).
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