diff --git a/doc/api/api_changes/2014-11-07_remove_IMAGE.rst b/doc/api/api_changes/2014-11-07_remove_IMAGE.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..74ef3d594d21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/api/api_changes/2014-11-07_remove_IMAGE.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Removed `Image` from main namespace
+```````````````````````````````````
+
+`Image` was imported from PIL/pillow to test if PIL is available, but there is no
+reason to keep `Image` in the namespace once the availability has been determined.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py b/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py
index 87c8686591ae..a346b67de4ce 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ def import_module(name):
 try:
     from PIL import Image
     _has_pil = True
+    del Image
 except ImportError:
     _has_pil = False