Image dimensions 20.5 x 15.3 cm. Stilt-Walking Shepherds is a fascinating color lithograph realized by an anonymous artist in 1860. Dated 1860 bottom left, p. 23. On the lower left corner Gascogne in pencil. Good conditions, except for a usual yellowing of the paper. The stilt-walking shepherds were the curious shepherds of the Landes, a region situated in the southwestern France. These shepherds moved using long stilts, which gave them several advantages: it extended their field of vision allowing them to survey distant flocks of sheep, and allowing them to cover long distances in less time. It also allowed them to traverse the soft, marshy ground that the plains became after the slightest rainfall. This system of locomotion was so effective that men on stilts could keep up with horses at full trot.