THE THREE SOLDIERS - Google Arts & Culture

This small panel, once in the collection of King Charles I of England, represents three Landsknechte, the German mercenary foot soldiers whose picturesque costumes and swashbuckling airs provided popular images for printmakers in the sixteenth century.

Bruegel may have executed the Frick grisaille as a model for such an engraving, although none is known, or simply as a cabinet piece.

This painting is a grisaille, executed in tones ranging from subdued whites in the highlights to blacks in the background and in the shadows on the figures.