as the painting did not go down well with the critics, menn turned to more modest landscapes that he painted outdoors, and with which he introduced the principles of the modern french "paysage-intime" into switzerland. ‘in a bush i see everything’, menn used to say, capturing in his self-contained landscapes atmospheric changes of evening and morning hours, quiet harmonies of an unspoilt riverbank, a swampy plain or of an orchard in midday, casting them in sensitive tonal values and poetic tenderness. his approach derived entirely from contemporary french landscape painting, in particular from his friend corot whom menn called the ‘master of the right values’. it was these new values combined with his quest for natural beauty that menn would promote as a teacher to generations of swiss artists.