Karl Valentin (1882-1948) is considered the epitome of the Bavarian original and shaped a unique form of subtle humor with his plays, sketches, and films, influencing generations of stage artists - even far beyond the borders of Bavaria and the German-speaking world - to this day. However, this universal genius left a broad oeuvre not only in film and audio documents; his penchant for the quirky also led him to don numerous masks - from "Athlete" to "Fire Chief" to "Lorelei" - representations that have been preserved as photographs. When Valentin passed away, the art critic, publicist, and diplomat Wilhelm Hausenstein (1882-1957) wrote an obituary, illustrated with over 40 of these self-stagings of his friend. We now present the images along with Hausenstein's insightful analysis of the foundations of Valentin's work.