Born in Verona on 28 July 1788 and died in Florence on 11 September 1847. He began his activity as a decorator of landscapes and theatrical scenes, in tempera and fresco, under the guidance of his father Giovanni, architect and perspective painter in Verona -quadraturista; later he worked in Mantua (1811-1815) and then in Venice. Driven by the "great desire" to experiment with oil painting in easel pictures - as documented by the interesting autobiography compiled around 1833 (Art Collections of the Castello Sforzesco Museum in Milan), he moved to Milan, the center of ferment artistic and cultural. However, unable to compete with local landscape painters, in 1819, already thirty-one, he decided to embark from Genoa for Spain: "I therefore set up a small trunk in which, in addition to a few necessary clothes, I locked up everything I needed to paint a few pictures ". The happy three-year period spent first in Barcelona, ​​then in Valencia, Alicante and Madrid, witnessed by the fortune encountered by his landscapes and by some internal view of the capital with figures, is interrupted by the civil war. Forced to move to Paris in 1822, the capital center where "artists of all kinds swarmed", Canella proposes himself "at the cost of any sacrifice to restart painting with other principles". As a devilish mannerist as he defined himself at the time of his first Venetian activity, he decides to devote himself to the study of truth, that is, to copy only nature in order not to be anyone's imitator and to create an original way for himself. To study nature and "change color and way of doing", Canella spent a year and a half in the forest of Fontainebleau and from there he went to Alsace and then to Baden (1824-1825), perfecting himself in portraying landscapes, figures and animals. Alongside an indefatigable graphic production in his numerous travel notebooks, he created both preparatory drawings for some lithographs destined for the Galerie de son Altesse Royale Madame la Duchesse de Berry (1822), and autograph lithographs that he sent to Brera in 1824. In these years he acquired notoriety for his urban views of Paris, which found the approval of aristocrats, ambassadors, diplomats, even the Duke of Orleans, the future Louis Philippe, who bestowed on him a gold medal, and the first painter of the King of France , François Gérard. In 1826 he spent a period in Normandy, the setting for some of his marines, and then in Holland, where he stayed for four months. Following the revolution of 1830 and the consequent fall of the Bourbon monarchy, Canella decided to return to Milan in June 1832. Appreciated at the Brera exhibitions, he began a brilliant career preferring landscape painting, often marine and lake, to urban painting. Receives important awards: refuses the invitation to compete for the chair of landscape at the Venice Academy, is a member and then ordinary councilor at the Brera Academy and honorary member of the Verona Academy, where he exhibits regularly since 1834 to 1844. In the meantime he made other trips to Trento and Rovereto, in 1835, to Vienna, Prague, Pesth, Dresden, Berlin, in 1837, to Rome and Naples, at the end of 1838. On 11 September 1847 the Veronese press gives news of his sudden death in Florence: “Giuseppe Canella is dead! The supreme landscape painter ..., the great man who is our glory, indeed Italian ... "(" Sheet of Verona "). His works are preserved in the most prestigious private and public collections, including the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan (Torrente in the mountains, 1800, Landscape with full moon or Chapel with a landscape in the moonlight, 1800, The sprouting of dawn in the Roman countryside, the small squares of 1800: Lake landscape in the mountains with figurines, Landscape with snow effect, Landscape with peasants and animals at the drinking trough, Landscape with Gothic style church with figures on horseback and seats, Wood with macchiette, 1830, Port with boats, 1830), the Art Collections of the Museum of the Sforzesco Castle in Milan (album of drawings, around 1830), the Pinacoteca of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera (View of the Roman countryside with storm, 1838-1839, Landscape of Lombardy (View of Trento), 1839, Landscape of Lombardy (View of Garda), 1841, View of Lake Garda, 1846, View of Lake Garda, formerly View of Lake Maggiore, 1846) , the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan (Ve urban duta with church and market, drawing, around 1820-1830), the Milan Museum of Palazzo Morando Attandolo Bolognini (La Corsia Dei Servi in ​​Milan, 1834, Interior of the church of San Nazaro during the sermon, 1835), the collection of Cariplo Foundation set up at the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan (Barconi in Rialto, 1833, View of the Naviglio canal taken on the San Marco bridge in Milan, 1834, View of Sala on Lake Como, 1847), the Civic Museums of Art and History of Brescia (Landscape with torrent (River Adige), Landscape with torrent, Landscape with trees, Lake landscape with mountains, Country landscape with mills and canal, View of Lake Garda with mountains in the background, Mountain landscape, View of the interior of the courtyard of a farmhouse, View of the Pont des arts in Paris, 1830 , View of the Seine near the Pont-Neuf, 1830, Tintorie de Rouen, 1832, Marina with boats, 1833, Marina on the coasts of Barcelona, 1833, two versions of the View of the cathedral of Caen, 1835, Sunrise over the sea, 1837, View of the banks of the Sebino, 1837, An evening with a rising moon, 1838, Stopover for travelers in Spain, 1839), the civic collections of art of Palazzo Volpi di Como (Santa Maria Maddalena penitente, before 1824), the Institute Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome (two notebooks made during the trip to Germany, 1837-1838, and along Lake Como, around 1838), the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona (album of drawings).