Degreef, affiliated with Impressionism, but not claiming to belong to any school, was part of the new generation of painters who painted from the ground up.
Although he did not belong to any school or group, his practice of a broad naturalism is similar to that of some Frenchmen such as Daubigny.

Our painting, in shades of grey and brown, plunges us directly into the atmosphere of the ports.
The work seems inhabited. By placing moving carts, smoke from a fire or smoke from ships in different parts of the painting, the artist makes the viewer experience the industrialization in progress.