diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix
index 129b864a241d..6334d2e4f793 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { stdenv, fetchPypi, python, buildPythonPackage, pycairo, backports_functools_lru_cache
 , which, cycler, dateutil, nose, numpy, pyparsing, sphinx, tornado, kiwisolver
 , freetype, libpng, pkgconfig, mock, pytz, pygobject3, functools32, subprocess32
+, fetchpatch
 , enableGhostscript ? false, ghostscript ? null, gtk3
 , enableGtk2 ? false, pygtk ? null, gobject-introspection
 , enableGtk3 ? false, cairo
@@ -47,9 +48,16 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     ++ stdenv.lib.optionals enableQt [ pyqt4 ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optionals python.isPy2 [ functools32 subprocess32 ];
 
-  patches =
-    [ ./basedirlist.patch ] ++
-    stdenv.lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ ./darwin-stdenv-2.2.3.patch ];
+  patches = [
+    ./basedirlist.patch
+
+    # https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/12478
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "numpy-1.16-compat.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/commit/2980184d092382a40ab21f95b79582ffae6e19d6.patch";
+      sha256 = "1c0wj28zy8s5h6qiavx9zzbhlmhjwpzbc3fyyw9039mbnqk0spg2";
+    })
+  ] ++ stdenv.lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ ./darwin-stdenv-2.2.3.patch ];
 
   # Matplotlib tries to find Tcl/Tk by opening a Tk window and asking the
   # corresponding interpreter object for its library paths. This fails if