diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index 72d164e1406c..ebeb2413ac52 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -7001,6 +7001,8 @@ def hist(self, x, bins=None, range=None, density=False, weights=None,
         bin_range = range
         from builtins import range
 
+        kwargs = cbook.normalize_kwargs(kwargs, mpatches.Patch)
+
         if np.isscalar(x):
             x = [x]