diff --git a/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/boxplot.py b/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/boxplot.py
index f78327896908f..80f0349b205e6 100644
--- a/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/boxplot.py
+++ b/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/boxplot.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 )
 import warnings
 
+import matplotlib as mpl
 from matplotlib.artist import setp
 import numpy as np