Sylvain was the first American born child in his family. His father was from Paris, France, and his mother from Brussels, Belgium. He grew up speaking French at home. To honor his mother and father Sylvain has titled all his paintings in French.

In his early years he spent a lot of time going to museums and looking at books of paintings from the early 1100’s through the modern paintings of the day, At the ripe old age of 23 he spent a summer working as a front office cashier for a large hotel in the Catskills. During the day, Sylvain would often walk through the lobby where he would watch a Chinese painter, (a really fine classical portrait artist by the name of Jo Hing Lowe), do someone’s portrait within a week. This fascinated him and he and Jo began talking, became friends, and occasionally played a game of Chinese Chess.