The Merchant's Family 1957 - 1961

Anatoli Kaplan made this lithograph, “The Merchant’s Family,” in a flurry of marks, a storm of dark ink against a lighter ground. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the stone, building up these three figures, almost like characters in a play. I wonder what Kaplan was thinking about as he pulled this print? What stories of family and tradition were swirling in his mind? Maybe he was also thinking about Daumier, or Kollwitz – printmakers who used lithography to capture the weight and texture of human experience. Look at how Kaplan renders the folds of the woman’s dress on the left – it ripples like water, a dance of light and shadow. And then there’s the patriarch, with his long beard and solemn expression, his presence anchoring the whole composition. It makes me want to grab a crayon and a piece of paper and start scratching, smudging, and seeing what emerges! Artists are always riffing off each other, you know? Kaplan might have been thinking of those earlier artists, and in turn, he’s inspired so many artists to play with this medium. Painting, printmaking, it's all a conversation across time, each artist adding their own voice to the mix.