Péan was born in 1830 in Marboué, french department of Eure-et-Loir.

He was elected to the French Académie Nationale de Médecine on November 22, 1887, and was awarded the rank of Commander of Legion of Honor in 1893.

A street, Rue Péan, was named after him in Châteaudun, Cloyes-sur-le-Loir and Paris.

Péan was very admired and a follower of hygiene, he disputed the discoveries of Louis Pasteur.

In 1893, he attempted the first known total joint arthroplasty, operating on the shoulder of a French waiter; it had to be removed two years later due to infection.