After making his debut at the Fine Art Exposition at the Brera Academy of 1818, he made a long journey through Spain, the Netherlands and France for study purposes.

The set of 13 landscapes shown at the Expositions at the Brera in 1831 proved a great success with the public and critics alike, not least due to the fame achieved in Paris with works exhibited in the Salons, commissions from Louis Philippe of Orleans and the award of a gold medal in 1830.

He returned to Milan in 1832 and devoted his energies to urban views characterised by an interest in the events of contemporary life and an atmospheric form of portrayal in evident competition with Giovanni Migliara.

The focus on poor and humble aspects of life formed part of the artist’s fundamental naturalism and coincided with a moralistic approach derived from the novelist Alessandro Manzoni.

Among his pupils or painters influenced by Canela were Felice Giuseppe Vertua, Constantino Prinetti, and Giovanni Renica.