This study seeks an answer to the question when and how the Czech romantic K. H. Mácha (1810–1836) started to be seen as a “modern” poet who could inspire authors writing decades after his death. The study proves that the image of “modern” Mácha as the first Czech poet to achieve the autonomy of art already existed between 1860 and 1890, and that Mácha’s artistic reputation grew constantly throughout the second half of the 19th century. This argument is based on a vast amount of evidence, mostly taken from literary journalism and criticism between 1858 and 1910 (the latter year seeing the centenary of Mácha’s birth).