KAPLAN, ANATOLI LVOVICH

KAPLAN, ANATOLI LVOVICH (1902–1980), Russian draftsman and lithographer. Kaplan studied at the Leningrad Academy from 1921 to 1927 and then he worked as a stage designer for ten years. He became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists in 1939 and his work was regularly shown in Russia. In 1941 he was commissioned to arrange the Jewish exhibit in the Leningrad Ethnological Museum. Kaplan started doing lithographs in 1937. His prints are inspired by Jewish tradition and Russian folklore. An emphasis on decorative elements imbues many of his works with a fairy tale quality. Kaplan drew illustrations to Shalom Aleichem's\>\> Kasrilovka (1937–41), The Bewitched Tailor (1953–57); and Tevye the Milkman (1957–61). The series "Views of Leningrad" (1946), executed during the days of the blockade, were acquired by many Russian museums. He also created lithographs for Song of Songs (1958–60), Yiddish Folk Songs (1959–60), and The Little Goat (1958). Kaplan, even at this late date, caught the atmosphere of the Jewish shtetl with simplicity and humor and succeeded in conveying the poetic mood of the literary sources. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kaplan (catalog of the Bezalel National Museum Jerusalem, 1962). (Elisheva Cohen)