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Between 16 and 18 June 1889, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh created one his most famous works from the view out of an asylum window: The Starry Night.

Debate on the masterpiece's distinctive 'swirls' has raged ever since, with many saying they were extensions of his fragile state at the time.

But now an artist has claimed that the spirals actually depict galaxies in the universe, and were likely inspired by drawings of the cosmos at the time.

US artist Michael Benson says the Whirlpool Galaxy inspired van Gogh. The Dutch painter created arguably his most famous work - The Starry Night (shown) - in 1889 from the view out of his asylum window

The claim was made by American artist and photographer Michael Benson in his new book, Cosmigraphics, reported PRI.

Of particular interest, he says, is a drawing of the Whirlpool Galaxy - official designation M51a - by Anglo-Irish astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in the mid 19th century. 

To observe the night sky, Lord Rosse built the largest telescope at the time - one with a mirror six feet (1.8 metres) in diameter - with which he observed the galaxy and made his drawing.

'We believe that drawing led directly to Starry Night, the most famous artistic depiction of the night sky,' said Mr Benson.

'Either it was in the library of the asylum in the south of France, or he saw it in Paris.'

At the time, van Gogh was in an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in Southern France - and the painting is a depiction of his view out of the window.

The technique of using swirls later appeared in many more of van Gogh's work - although whether they were inspired by the Whirlpool Galaxy drawing or not may never be known for sure. 

The Whirlpool Galaxy is about 23 million light-years away and is roughly the size of the Milky Way at about 60,000 light-years in diameter.

Interestingly, it was the first galaxy found to have a spiral structure - although at the time astronomers thought other galaxies were nebulae, not galaxies.

It was not until 1922 that American astronomer Edwin Hubble first proved that our galaxy was just one of many, many more in the universe.

In 1850, an astronomer depicted what a distant spiral galaxy might look like for the first time. Lord Rosse's Whirlpool Galaxy drawing (shown) may have inspired van Gogh, according to Mr Benson. At the time, though, it was thought this was a nebula, and not another galaxy

Space telescope zooms in on the Andromeda Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy is about 23 million light-years away and is roughly the size of the Milky Way at about 60,000 light-years in diameter. This image taken by the Hubble Space Telscope shows the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51A or NGC 5194) on the left, while the smaller object in the upper right is M51B or NGC 5195

The link between Lord Rosse's drawing and van Gogh's Starry Night is not completely new.

In June last year, Dr Omar Nasim, a Newton International Fellow at Oxford University's Faculty of History, provided his own context and insight into the connection in his book Observing by Hand.

'The Whirlpool Galaxy can clearly be seen at the centre of Van Gogh's Starry Night, which seems to have been inspired by the artist's knowledge of Camille Flammarion, a French writer who popularised Rosse's vision,' he said.

'Flammarion described astronomical objects floating, as though "lost in the depths of the sky", and was moved by the awe and terror they evoked "even in a cold engraving".

'Van Gogh wrote of a similar sense of wonder shortly before he painted Starry Night.

'He paints the night sky as though newly discovered astronomical phenomena could be seen with the naked eye, expanding human imagination and perception by lending the viewer "telescopic eyes".'