Émile Verhaeren (Sint-Amands, Belgium, May 21, 1855 - Rouen (France), November 27, 1916) was a French-language poet of Flemish origin, and one of the main founders of modernism. He learned his family's French and the local Flemish dialect naturally (he didn't teach it at school), but lost contact with it when he was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in Ghent at the age of 10. He was a Nobel candidate. He initially subscribed to naturalism, but as a poet he is often considered a modernist and mystic. Marie Gevers, another Flemish author who wrote in the French language, met him through her niece, and was encouraged by him in her literary endeavors. Both gained fame abroad and were translated into other languages. In Brussels he became friends with Darío de Regoyos, with whom he would develop the pictorial aesthetic of the so-called ‘Black Spain.’ The Émile Verhaeren museum and society are located in Sint-Amands, province of Antwerp.