diff --git a/lalinference/debian/control.in b/lalinference/debian/control.in
index 132699403f9b27089e8bda0bb7d47e4bf1f997f3..9097d9ad3b6adb529ca89cfabd1d187ca5f88a73 100644
--- a/lalinference/debian/control.in
+++ b/lalinference/debian/control.in
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 9),
   python-all-dev,
   python-h5py,
   python-healpy (>= 1.9.1),
+  python-matplotlib (>= 1.2.0),
   python-numpy (>= 1.7),
   python-scipy (>= 0.8),
   python-seaborn,
@@ -100,6 +101,7 @@ Depends:
   ${python:Depends},
   ${shlibs:Depends},
   python-h5py,
+  python-matplotlib (>= 1.2.0),
   python-pkg-resources,
   python-scipy (>= 0.8),
   python-seaborn,
diff --git a/lalinference/lalinference.spec.in b/lalinference/lalinference.spec.in
index f570347586d3783140aee1fe5811a09e176cde7a..97c677b65be2d0058992236800358d703a9920f6 100644
--- a/lalinference/lalinference.spec.in
+++ b/lalinference/lalinference.spec.in
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ BuildRequires: chealpix-devel >= 3.30.0
 BuildRequires: gsl-devel
 BuildRequires: hdf5-devel
 BuildRequires: healpy >= 1.9.1
+BuildRequires: python-matplotlib >= 1.2.0
 BuildRequires: python-shapely
 BuildRequires: libmetaio-devel
 BuildRequires: libxml2-devel
@@ -94,6 +95,7 @@ Requires: python-shapely
 Requires: numpy >= 1.7
 Requires: python
 Requires: scipy >= 0.8
+Requires: python-matplotlib >= 1.2.0
 Requires: python-six
 Requires: python-seaborn
 Requires: glue >= @MIN_GLUE_VERSION@