due to lack of commissions, menn returned to geneva, where, in 1844, he applied in vain for a teaching position at the local art school. in the following year, he exhibited a large alpine landscape, "wetterhorn from hasliberg", which caused a minor scandal as it did not meet the public's and critics’ expectations of smooth, highly finished, heroic alpine views. this incident did not help much in getting him a public job as professor of painting or drawing. hence, he started to accept private pupils in his studio. in these years, menn also experimented together with jules darier, another of corot's friends in geneva, in producing daguerreotypes, though none of them are known to have been preserved. he also travelled again extensively, this time along the rhone valley and to the south of france. it was in these years that he turned completely to the "paysage intime" (intimate landscape) and achieved similar results to those of corot, without attaining the latter's impressive level of creativity. in 1850, menn was appointed director of the geneva art school and from then on taught figure drawing, rather than landscapes, for 42 years. in this position, he trained two generations of swiss painters, among them eugène burnand, , edouard vallet and ferdinand hodler, who reputedly said: ‘it is to him [menn] that i owe everything’.