diff --git a/server/cli/launch.py b/server/cli/launch.py
index ca5c59f7..7523e497 100644
--- a/server/cli/launch.py
+++ b/server/cli/launch.py
@@ -82,6 +82,10 @@ def launch(data, layout, diffexp, title, verbose, debug, obs_names, var_names,
 
     click.echo(f"[cellxgene] Loading data from {basename(data)}, this may take awhile...")
 
+    # Fix for anaconda python. matplotlib typically expects python to be installed as a framework TKAgg is usually
+    # available and fixes this issue. See https://matplotlib.org/faq/virtualenv_faq.html
+    import matplotlib as mpl
+    mpl.use('TkAgg')
     from server.app.scanpy_engine.scanpy_engine import ScanpyEngine
 
     args = {
diff --git a/server/requirements.txt b/server/requirements.txt
index 27302b21..97c07954 100644
--- a/server/requirements.txt
+++ b/server/requirements.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Flask-Compress>=1.4.0
 Flask-Cors>=3.0.6
 Flask-RESTful>=0.3.6
 flask-restful-swagger-2>=0.35
+matplotlib>=2.2
 numpy>=1.14.5
 pandas>=0.23.1
 scanpy>=1.3.2