Couture was born at Senlis (Oise), and studied under Baron A. J. Gros and Paul Delaroche, winning a Prix de Rome in 1837.

He began exhibiting historical and genre pictures at the Salon in 1840, and obtained several medals. His masterpiece was his Romans in the Decadence of the Empire (1847), now in the Luxembourg; and his Love of Money (1844; at Toulouse), Falconer (1855), and Damocles (1872), are also good examples.

He died in Villiers-le-Bel.