The traditional “Mais” festival in Nice.
The origins of the “Mais” may date back to Gallo-Roman times, when priests in Nice's Cimiez district celebrated the renewal of spring by dancing around a pine tree decorated with garlands of flowers. From the 15th century onwards, May festivities were celebrated in Nice. Over the next three centuries, May rounds took place in front of the Palais Royal around one or more trees erected by the municipality. These popular festivities were gradually abandoned at the end of the 19th c. It wasn't until 1907 that they were revived by a number of Nice residents who loved their traditions. They were then organized by street or by district, and gave rise to balls and various games.

Raoul Dufy lived in Nice from 1925 to 1929 with his wife Eugénie-Émilienne. The artist was always inspired by popular festivities and pavoised streets. In the thirties, he produced several works illustrating the famous “May in Nice”. 

Raoul DUFY, Le Mai à Nice, 1930-1933, oil on canvas - Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret, Nice (Inv. N.Mba 5608)

In this remarkably balanced composition, Raoul Dufy presents us with a view of Vieux-Nice at the time of the “Mais” festival in 1934. 
The building, renamed "La Treille" because of the superb climbing plant that now completely covers its facade, can already be seen in our gouache.

“Raoul Dufy's watercolors [and gouaches] are life itself, exalted under the gaze of a genius creator and produced with an economy of means. They are fluid but never blurred. They are quick but not hasty. Often executed in twenty minutes, they are the result of numerous preliminary attempts, discarded by the Master in favor of the last one [...]. They are profuse but not overloaded. They are transparent and not mawkish, because of the firmness of the attack”.
Marcelle Berr de Turique, friend and biographer of Raoul Dufy, quoted in the catalog of the exhibition Raoul Dufy, un autre regard, Musée Maillol, Paris and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nice, 2003, p. 13.