This essay analyzes the idea of nation in the work of the Croatian writer Antun Gustav Matoš (1873–1914). The idea of nation occupies the central position not only in his political essays and feuilletons, but also in the aesthetic representations of personal and collective identity. It is argued that the idea is developing in three models: political, cultural, and primordial. Matoš’s political model doesn’t refer to the ethnical aspect of the formation of the nation, but rather to the idea of its citizens’ or territorial constructiveness. Namely the national idea is formed by those who lives within the certain territory, regardless of their ethnic, racial, or any other form of belonging. This model was developed by Matoš in close reference to the eponymous Renan’s essay ‘What is a Nation?’ (1882). He worked out the cultural national model empirically, namely by observing differences between Zagreb and Belgrade. This model is closely connected with ethno-symbolism of Anthony Smith, is based on the idea of cultural identity in its relation to myths, symbols, values, and traditions of certain community. The third, and the deepest layer of Matoš’s idea of nation is related to the nature elements, i.e. it is connected with the geographical space and landscape. The end of this essay offers a short review of Matoš’s aesthetic representations of the idea of nation in poetry and in prose, and argues that Matoš bypassed ideology by using literary such strategies as humor, grotesque, intertextuality, and Art nouveau’s decorativeness.