Born in
Aachen, Oeder was the son of the banker Julius Oeder (1810-1861) and his wife Louise Pauli, who was born in Ghent, and the grandson of the wool merchant and alderman mayor . He attended the grammar school in Duisburg, then the commercial school in Wiesbaden. Afterwards he was a pupil in Westphalia for three years. In 1866, he joined the reserve escadron of the
11th Hussar Regiment in Düsseldorf. During the
Franco-Prussian War, he served as a reserve officer. After the war he turned entirely to painting and was an associate of
Emil Hünten. He had already begun
landscape painting from 1868, trying his hand at
en plein air. Encouraged by
Eduard Bendemann, the then director of the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he settled in Düsseldorf in 1869, lived on the Jägerhofstraße, but remained self-taught throughout his life. He perfected his technique while travelling in Bavaria, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and England. His paintings are dominated by
Paysages intimes from the Lower Rhine, often in a gloomy autumnal or wintry mood. Betont wird immer wieder der Einfluss
Olof Jernberg's auf seine Malerei. At the age of 47, a head condition forced him to give up painting. Shortly before, he had been awarded the title of professor. From then on, Oeder devoted himself to collecting Asian art, which included sword ornaments (
tsuba) and Japanese prints, including
ukiyo-e. The collection was auctioned in Vienna after Oeder's death on 17 October 1943. In 1872, he built himself a house, directly next to the
Malkasten at Jacobistraße 10, where he lived until his death. The residence, which also functioned as a private gallery, was luxuriously rebuilt and extended in 1894 according to plans by Hubert Jacobs and
Gottfried Wehling. Oeder had been married since 11 September 1879 with Thusnelde (1860–1931), daughter of from the famous entrepreneurial
Haniel family and in 1890 co-owner of the machine factory "Haniel & Lueg" at the
Düsseldorf-Grafenberg allee. In 1898, on the occasion of the Malkasten's 50th anniversary, Oeder,
Albert Flamm and
Otto Erdmann received the
Order of the Red Eagle 4th class. Around 1900, Oeder, together with
Paul Clemen, Heinrich Lueg and
Fritz Roeber, was one of the initiators of the . His collection of Japanese art was exhibited in the Ausstellungspalast built for this purpose at the "Deutsch-Nationale Kunstausstellung Düsseldorf 1902". In 1904, Oeder was, among others, on the art committee and delegate to the International Art Exhibition for the international
Garden festival in Deutschland. Oeder war Stifter der Fontänenskulptur
Jröne Jong by Joseph Hammerschmidt in the middle of the
Runden Weihers in Düsseldorf Hofgarten the marble bench made by
Rudolf Bosselt in the Schmuckanlage and the Goltsteinparterre in Goltsteinstraße. His wife Thusnelde Oeder, involved in Düsseldorf's cultural life, was a member of the ''Rhenish Women's Club'', founded in 1905 and chaired by Minna Blanckertz. In 1916, on the occasion of a special exhibition of his paintings, he became an honorary member of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. On his 80th birthday in 1926, the city of Düsseldorf made him an
honorary citizen. It also honoured him by naming the Oederallee at the
Tonhalle. Oeder died in Düsseldorf at the age of 85 and is buried at . == Work ==