Two stained glass windows that inspired the young Vincent van Gogh have been verified as those in a modest Hampshire church.

Van Gogh saw the designs while living and working in London and wrote passionately about them to his brother, Theo.

In the years since his death in 1890 academics have pored over the artist's writings but have never found the windows he enthused over.

Art historian Max Donnelly has finally established that the windows are located in St Andrews church in Owslebury, near Winchester.

Standing just over a metre high (4ft), the windows were commissioned by William Carnegie, 8th Earl of Northesk, as a memorial to his wife and daughter, who both died before him. Both women are depicted as the Virgin Mary.

Van Gogh saw designs for the windows at the studio of stained glass makers Cottier and Company in London in 1876. He wrote to his brother: "I saw sketches for two church windows. In the middle of one of the windows the portrait of an elderly lady, such a noble face, with the words 'Thy will be done' inscribed above; in the other window the portrait of her daughter, with the words 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

The windows were made and installed at St Andrews and have been much admired, but the link with Van Gogh was never known.

Donnelly made the link when researching the stained glass of Daniel Cottier and saw pictures of the windows at St Andrews. One of the window's inscriptions had changed between design and erection, but there seems little doubt that they are those so admired by Van Gogh.

Donnelly said: "I saw a reference to them at the church in Owslebury and managed to get some photographs. It was then that bells started ringing, and it happened to be about the same time as the exhibition of Van Gogh's letters at the Royal Academy.

"Although the letter mentioning the sketches was not among them, it reminded me that he had written to his brother."

Donnelly contacted the earl's descendants and was pointed in the direction of the family scrapbook. "Inside I found photographs of the people involved and photographs of the designs that Van Gogh had described," said Donnelly. "I assume that the 8th earl sent copies to family members showing them what he was intending for the church to the memory of his wife and daughter.

"This proved that the windows were the ones Van Gogh had seen."

Donnelly said Van Gogh must have seen the sketches when living in Isleworth, west London, and teaching at the school of minister Thomas Slade-Jones.

"They are punchy and quirky and he'd have liked them for a number of reasons," said Donnelly. "He was very religious, knew they were for church windows and who the sitters were. At the time Van Gogh was very interested in the journey of life."

Donnelly writes about the discovery in the next edition of the Burlington Magazine.