The Lecture of Emile Verhaeren is an oil on canvas painting by Belgian painter Théo van Rysselberghe.

[2][3] The scene is set in an imaginary meeting in Emile Verhaeren's apartment in Saint-Cloud, wherein the poet is reading a passage from his own oeuvre.

There is a completely filled bookcase on the bottom left (where the action starts); on the wall there hangs a painting by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, close friend of fellow Belgian painter Alfred Stevens,[5] and even a statue by Georges Minne, sitting behind Fénéon, the only artist standing upright among the depicted group.

[3][2] Verhaeren is depicted on the far left, with his back turned to the viewer, and at first glance he may not seem to be the central object in the painting, nor its most important element.

While all other artists, with similar looks on their faces, listen passively to Verhaeren, the latter is active, reading his poem out loud in his red clothes.