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Club des Hashischins

French artist association

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 31, 2025
Entity authorityQ1287953 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Club des Hashischins (sometimes also spelled Club des Hashishins or Club des Hachichins, "Club of the Hashish-Eaters") was a Parisian group dedicated to the exploration of drug-induced experiences, notably with hashish. Members included Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval and Honoré de Balzac.

Background

The Club was started as a research experiment. Unknown members included Charles Baudelaire's muse and lover Jeanne Duval (known as, Black Venus), the owner of the Hotel Lauzun (Pimodan) Jerome Pichon, Fernand Broissard who hosted the initial events in his room, and Louis-Remy Aubert Roche who worked with Jacques Joseph Moreau growing cannabis on the grounds of Bicetre Mental Asylum.

Several drugs like hashish and opium were increasingly well known in Europe by the beginning of the nineteenth century. At that time, recreational use of these drugs was widespread among scientific and literary circles.

The Armée d'Orient, along with a contingent of 151 scientists and anthropologists from the Commission des Sciences et des Arts, brought quantities of hashish home with them from Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. The French conquest of Algeria of 1830 to 1847 further increased the popular consumption of hashish.

Members

Occasional visitors included Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and Victor Hugo.

History

The club was active from about 1844 to 1849 and counted the literary and intellectual elite of Paris among its members, including Dr.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Club des Hashischins” is french artist association. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Club, Hashischins and French, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1830, 1847, 1844, 1849—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1844-01-01. For this dossier, Club, Hashischins and French is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “french artist association” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1287953. Authority coordinates are 48.852, 2.359. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1830, 1847, 1844 and 1849.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Club des Hashischins”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Club des Hashischins primary sources, Club des Hashischins archive and Club research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Club des Hashischins”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Club des Hashischins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.