(Re)discover Georges Rouault on the cheap

If you're out of work, you may be in just the mood for something dark and beautiful and free.

Look no further. Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art is hosting "Mystic Masque: Semblance and Reality in Georges Rouault, 1871-1958." Rouault was a French modernist, expressionist painter who studied under Gustave Moreau alongside Henri Matisse.

The Globe noted that Rouault's work is often criticized and dismissed for its overtly religious sensibility. But they described this exhibit as a "thorough and impressive salvage operation" that leaves his pieces "suddenly so much more interesting and complex than before."

Curated by Jesuit priest and academic Stephen Schloesser, the collection brilliantly intersperses Rouault's images of prostitutes and clowns (whose occupations require taking on a second identity) with his depictions of Christ (who is seen as a wrongfully accused criminal.)

So if you're feeling misunderstood and misrepresented, you have an empathetic friend and ally in Rouault. And it's free.

The museum is open Monday-Friday 11:00-4:00, Saturday and Sunday 12:00-5:00 (it will be closed on November 27 and 28.) "Mystic Masque" will run through December 7. Click here for directions.