Art Critic Prof. Mikhail German writes: “Kaplan views the houses of his native city…with undisguised admiration. In his eyes, the structure of logs and planks, the rhythm of the old windows and steps conceals an infinite number of magical mysteries. You could say that the poetry of his drawings is exclusively a matter of their piercing, stunning resemblance to reality – that special, unquestionable resemblance to reality that can be understood without comparing the drawing to the original….He sees and draws the houses through the prism of his miraculously surviving childish impressions, through the mist of his memories, accentuating every little crack and every crooked twist of the roof with the everlasting sorrow felt for the passing joy of the first impression.”

As he walked past Leningrad’s famous granite embankments, Kaplan was once asked, “where do you get ideas for the people whom you depict in your paintings?” – “They live here,” he would respond and point his hand to his heart.