Dmitry Filippovich Tsaplin was born on February 8, 1890, in a peasant family. He studied at the Saratov Higher Artistic Workshops, where his mentor was A. M. Lavinsky. Since 1920, Tsaplin began participating in exhibitions, and his first studio was located in Saratov on Solyanaya Street. In 1925, his first solo exhibition took place in Saratov.

From 1925, Tsaplin lived in Moscow and participated in the exhibitions of the AHRR and ORSa in 1925 and 1927. After his second solo exhibition in 1927 at the House of Writers, the People's Commissar A. V. Lunacharsky sent him to work abroad.

In Paris, Tsaplin met Pablo Picasso, Osip Zadkine, and sculptor Boris Shalyapin, as well as his father Fyodor Shalyapin, for whom he created a bust that is now in the Saratov Museum. In Paris, little Irina Witman visited his studio and decided to become a sculptor. There, Tsaplin also met his future wife, Tatyana Leshchenko-Sukhomlina.

Later, Tsaplin moved with his family to Spain, where his works began to reflect the influence of Catalan sculpture. He exhibited in Paris, Mallorca, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and London. Despite high demand, he did not sell his works abroad, considering it important to return them to his homeland.

In 1935, Tsaplin returned to the USSR and created numerous portrait works. His wooden sculpture "Loader" brought him the most fame. He lived on Tverskaya Street in Moscow.

The works of D. F. Tsaplin are kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the State Theater Museum named after Bakhrushin, and many other museums in Russia and abroad.

Dmitry Tsaplin passed away on November 25, 1967, in Moscow and was buried at the Donskoy Cemetery.

Tsaplin's creativity is divided into several periods. In France, his works fit into the Art Deco tradition, in Spain they reflected the influence of Catalan sculpture, while the Soviet period was marked by tragedy and absurdity. Despite accusations of formalism and a lack of commissions, Tsaplin found his niche in animalism. He also created wooden heads of Lenin and Marx and allegorical sculptures such as "The Rising" and "Atlantes." Tsaplin developed a unique wood treatment that protected his works from pests. His sculptures, despite their non-Soviet aesthetics, attracted interest from museums and organizations. He also experimented with abstraction and glass sculptures, many of which have not survived.

On February 28, 2017, a square in a new neighborhood in Saratov was named after Dmitry Filippovich Tsaplin.

In the spring of 2018, the State Tretyakov Gallery began fundraising to acquire and restore his works, saved by sculptor V. P. Buynachev and his colleagues.

In 2020, the "Culture" channel released a documentary about Tsaplin titled "Dmitry Tsaplin. The Lost Genius. Cutting Off the Excess."