Executed in 1897, this signed lithograph in black on wove paper belongs to a pivotal moment in Henri Lebasque's early career, when the French painter and printmaker was absorbing the social and aesthetic currents circulating through fin-de-siècle Paris. The work's dual title, "Le Fils de l'abbesse; Le Fardeau de la liberté," carries a charged irony characteristic of the period's satirical visual culture, pairing ecclesiastical authority with the weight of freedom in a way that invites sustained reading. Lebasque renders his composition with the economical confidence of a draftsman fluent in the graphic language of the epoch, and the intimate sheet dimensions of 32.1 by 24.4 centimeters concentrate that energy into a focused, quietly confrontational object. Lebasque is celebrated today primarily for the luminous, color-drenched canvases of his Post-Impressionist maturity, which places a work like this in genuinely instructive contrast for collectors seeking a fuller understanding of his range. Printmaking in this period was not a secondary pursuit but a serious vehicle for artistic and political expression, embraced by figures across the Nabis and Symbolist circles with whom Lebasque was contemporaneous. The lithographic medium here allows for a tonal richness that rewards close attention, the velvety blacks of the ink pressing against the texture of the wove paper to produce a surface both direct and nuanced. For collectors drawn to works on paper from the French fin de siècle, this piece offers a rare window into the graphic dimension of a career more commonly encountered through painting. Its signed status adds a layer of personal authentication, and its institutional provenance, with the work held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., speaks to its recognized art-historical significance. As a document of a gifted artist engaging seriously with the social imagination of his moment, it holds both scholarly and aesthetic appeal.