Stattler went to France in 1843–44 with his painting "Maccabees" (Machabeusze), which won the Louis Philippe Gold Medal, at the Paris Salon. Working on-and-off, it took him 12 years to complete it. Juliusz Słowacki described it as the Polish epic in Roman costume, with Antiochus demanding submission and subservience from the Jews like Russians from the Poles in the November Uprising. This painting is currently on display at the National Museum, Kraków. Financial needs prompted them to leave Kraków for Warsaw around 1870, nevertheless Stattler refused the lucrative offer to paint 50 copies of the Russian Tsar Alexander. He painted religious themes in his old age and died in Warsaw on November 6, 1875. He was buried at the Powązki Cemetery.