The Vegetarian Munch

Around 1900, when Edvard Munch was in Berlin, the city's vegetarian restaurants were part of Germany's ‘Life Reform' movement. Life Reformers reacted against industrialisation and urban problems by promoting a ‘back to nature' philosophy, a vegetarian, alcohol- and tobacco-free diet, exercise, nudism, and alternative spiritualities. Munch was practically a vegetarian for much of his later life. He ate mostly plant-based foods, fish, and very little meat. One of his drawings links meat-eating to animal cruelty. He teased his friends about joining him in this lifestyle: 'As a member of the vegetarian sect I say repent! from cannibalism. Eat not your uncles, aunts and little cousins... but, like the lamb, eat lilies, lily-of-the-valley and grass'. Here, Munch links vegetarianism with physical and spiritual purity.Read more