Upon his return from abroad, Stattler was appointed Professor of the School of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1831. Just before that, in 1829 he was in Łańcut at the estate of Count Aleksander Potocki, portraying members and children of his family and receiving a salary. In 1830 he was in Puławy, where he made preparatory sketches for a portrait of Prince Adam Czartoryski. Back in Kraków, he embarked on a programme of dramatic changes at the School of Fine Arts, introducing live model studies as well as nude art models.