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But toward the end of Turner's life, the flow of myth and history subjects abated as he went deeper than any earlier painter had gone into the structure of color. At Petworth, enjoying the relaxed and eccentric patronage of Lord Egremont, he produced paintings like Music Party, Petworth: its forms dissolving in a bath of russet light would look extreme for Monet in 1895, let alone in England 60 years earlier. In the last landscapes, the world of detail and substance has been fully absorbed into the vibration of light, pure self-delighting energy manifesting itself. Except for Blake's, they are the most religious paintings of the 19th century. They are wholly Apollonian. One understands why, after Turner died in 1851, the story got about that his last words were "The Sun is God."
·Robert Hughes