Being born into a wealthy, aristocratic family in Monthermé in the French Ardennes near the Belgian border, Degouve de Nuncques was able to indulge his interests in painting and music without material constraints. Although self-taught, he was advised by the Dutch symbolist Jan Toorop with whom he shared a studio. Later, he lived with the Belgian Symbolist painter Henry de Groux. A regular exhibitor at the Belgian avant-garde Les XX, Degouve was also frequently showing in Paris, where he was championed by Puvis de Chavannes and Maurice Denis. His paintings are considered to have been a significant influence on René Magritte and a predecessor to Belgian surrealism.

Like many Belgians during the First World War, Degouve de Nuncques emigrated to the neutral Netherlands, settling in Amsterdam where he stayed until 1919. Amsterdam provided the backdrop for the colored chalk drawing Warehouses on the Brouwersgracht with its brick facade of the buildings providing a backdrop punctuated with a complex rhythm of windows, stairs, and gables. The white seagulls in the foreground with their fluid flight above the canal seem to symbolize the immobility of the architecture, and perhaps also of the artist émigré. Substituting the canals of Bruges with scenes from Amsterdam, its silence is almost audible.

The internationally successful art dealer and publisher J.H. de Bois (1878-1946) most likely met Degouve through Toorop. After acquiring the present drawing, De Bois suggested the artist produce a lithograph.[1] De Bois had certain ideas on the print: "Imprimé sur trois pierres ça ferait une belle estampe, il me semble."[2] The litho did get printed in three colors in an edition of thirty by Van Leer. The price was ƒ30 and sold out immediately after it was published. After returning to Belgium, Degouve would continue to show with De Bois. De Bois, specialized in works by Van Gogh and Redon, placed many works in prominent Dutch collections and was responsible for selling more than thirty works by Degouve to the Kröller-Müller collection.

[1] Heijbroek, op.cit., p. 83

[2] Letter from De Bois to Degouve de Nuncques, dated 30 June 1917, Brievenboek De Bois, III, p. 34, R.K.D., The Hague