Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1891, the picture was much admired in its day. 'Like everything that Mr Waterlow paints', wrote the art critic of The Times in reviewing the exhibition, 'this landscape by the common side, with cottage, children, and ducks, with bright sky and blossoming fruit trees, has the charm and the true note of rural England'. F.G. Stephens in the Athenaeum noted 'Mr E.A. Waterlow's glowing and harmonious landscape', and added in a later issue: 'The May of Mr E. Waterlow, a group of red-roofed cottages, near a clump of flowering trees, is ... worthy of praise. The light and colour are good and natural, but are slightly scattered'. A third commendation occurs in C. Collins Baker's account of Waterlow's career in the Art Journal's Christmas Number for 1906. 'In his picture "May" Waterlow gave patent evidence of his ability in rendering the rich delicacy of trees in flower.'