Adolf Herman Wrangel had a brief military career. His half-brother, Carl Gustaf Wrangel, initiated the Schwedisches Heldenbuch, a volume featuring engraved portraits of officers. Matthäus Merian the Younger, who belonged to a family of artists and publishers, made several paintings of the people who figured in the plans for this book of heroes. This drawing of Adolf Herman may have arisen in this context. However, the book project never came to fruition.