HARI

Cover illustration for Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Jun 19, 2026

An elderly man bound in a wheelchair sits with eyes cast to the sky. The white satin blanket trimmed in gold and decorated with stars and planets covers his legs. Visibly beneath it, his feet are set awkwardly askew, not firmly on the ground. Beneath a white suit jacket with a raven pinned to the lapel, he wears a black mock turtleneck with diagonal stripes on the collar. He looks stately as his arms are crossed and he props a vibrant red book in his lap. Beyond the platform where he sits, the planet has been transformed into a mechanized, futuristic city as far as the eye can see. Rendered in purples and blues, surface entirely metal. Topped by saucers of various styles, towers extend to a sky rendered upward in a gradient from pink to peach. — HARI (1985), Acrylic on Canvas - 32” x 20”

Hari Seldon, the benevolent grand architect of the next millennium is seen here against the splendor of Trantor at the height of its power. It is a world completely sheathed in metal: one gigantic city that is the hub and nerve center of the Empire.

Hari Seldon and Trantor inspire and permeate the whole series; they are the books’ ultimate symbols, and so the only choice for the first cover. The composition is meant to suggest the stately grandeur of a monumental civilization.

Detailed pencil sketch for HARI featuring intricate towers with saucer-shaped tops. The architectural lines are precisely rendered while the figure of Hari Selden is sketched in lighter. — Detailed pencil layout for HARI

As in the Greek and Roman columns of antiquity, the towers represent the tradition, law, and bureaucracy of the thousand-year empire. Seldon is poised in his wheelchair; the light is coming from low on the horizon—it could be dawn or sunset, or both—signifying the impending doom of Trantor and the birth of the Foundation.

On his lapel is a raven, representing the nickname given to Seldon by the citizens of Trantor. He is bound to confinement, but he has the stars and planets in his lap as he looks with confidence to the future he so clearly sees.

Loose color study for HARI featuring a figure in wheelchair seated on a platform overlooking a gray landscape with tall towers climbing pink sky. — Loose color study for HARI

It was only later I noticed another aspect of the symbolism in this painting.

I have always had a horrible fascination for the A-bomb and I painted this during the fortieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima—that's the only explanation I can think of for the peculiar shapes of the towers.

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