The Artisan of Indianapolis Before he was a painter of landscapes and faces, Jacob Cox was a man of metal and fire. Arriving in Indianapolis in 1833, he sought his fortune not with a brush, but by establishing a business in stoves, tinware, and copper. His hands were accustomed to the heavy labor of a coppersmith, yet a different kind of talent began to surface through his craft. In 1840, he found an unexpected path toward the arts when he was commissioned to paint a banner for the presidential campaign of William Henry Harrison. This moment marked a shift in his life, leading him away from t…