Edouard-Alexandre Odier was the son of Antoine and Suzanne Odier. He studied art under Coutain and Ingres.

In 1833 Charles Paul Landon in his Annales du musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts: Salon, described Odier as 'amateur' (he did not mean this as a criticism), his works either being the product of his imagination, or offering technical challenges.