Flint describes this painting in his notes to Arnold Palmer's biography, 'A composition impelled by the sight of Provencal dancers at the Bravade, St.Tropez. There was material for subjects galore. Every dance deserved a pictorial record...The Bravade is a delightful melange of local patriotism and paganism overlaid with piety...There is much amid the merriment of the Bravade, which is, or was, a celebration of a famous victory in 1636. Twenty-one Spanish galleons had attacked St.Tropez, but strong in their faith in their patron Saint the men of the little fishing town defeated the lot in three hours. Since then on each fifteenth of June there have been processions, salutes with flags and guns, dancing and religious services at the old church and at altars erected in the streets'
(W. Russell Flint, loc. cit)