Anatoli Kaplan

Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan (, ), (1902 – 1980) was a Soviet-era Russian painter, sculptor and printmaker, whose works often reflect his Jewish origins.

Life Kaplan was born in Rogachov, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire (now Rahachow, Belarus) on December 26 or 28 1902. He was one of six children; his father was a butcher in Rahachow which was at that time within the Jewish Pale of Settlement in Russia. His background was therefore not dissimilar to that of Marc Chagall, born a generation earlier in 1887, and although their lives were very different, their art has much in common. The shtetl (Jewish village) figures in many of Kaplan's paintings; autobiographical references are very clear in The Butcher's Shop (1972) and Tailor's Shops (1975) and in the many illustrations which he was to create to the works of Sholem Aleichem. Amongst these works are his cover and illustrations to the Jewish Folksongs of Dmitri Shostakovich (1977), illustrations to Aleichem's Tevye the Milkman (3 series, 1957–1966), The Enchanted Tailor (1954–57) and Song of Songs (1962), and an extensive series of coloured lithographs (commissioned by the Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1961) on the old Jewish Passover song Chad Gadya (One Kid Goat). Throughout this time Kaplan was also producing paintings, though because of their subject matter they were rarely displayed in the Russia of his time. From 1967 onward he began also to produce ceramics and sculptures, including a set based on the characters of Gogol's Dead Souls.

Kaplan died in Leningrad, aged 77.

Exhibitions A substantial retrospective exhibition of Kaplan's work was held at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, in 1995. Other major exhibitions have been held in New York City (1992), London, Amsterdam, Jerusalem and elsewhere.