diff --git a/GPy/plotting/matplot_dep/plot_definitions.py b/GPy/plotting/matplot_dep/plot_definitions.py
index 34f32ac5f..41b9e883c 100644
--- a/GPy/plotting/matplot_dep/plot_definitions.py
+++ b/GPy/plotting/matplot_dep/plot_definitions.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ def add_to_canvas(self, ax, plots, legend=False, title=None, **kwargs):
             #ax.legend(prop=fontdict)
             legend_ontop(ax, ncol=legend, fontdict=fontdict)
         if title is not None: ax.figure.suptitle(title)
-        return plots
+        return ax
 
     def show_canvas(self, ax, **kwargs):
         ax.figure.canvas.draw()
diff --git a/GPy/testing/plotting_tests.py b/GPy/testing/plotting_tests.py
index 90dceab08..d68e56554 100644
--- a/GPy/testing/plotting_tests.py
+++ b/GPy/testing/plotting_tests.py
@@ -298,6 +298,23 @@ def test_plot():
                                                                                       'samples', 'in_error']], extensions=extensions):
         yield (do_test, )
 
+
+def test_show():
+    np.random.seed(111)
+    import matplotlib
+    matplotlib.rcParams.update(matplotlib.rcParamsDefault)
+    matplotlib.rcParams[u'text.usetex'] = False
+    import warnings
+    with warnings.catch_warnings():
+        warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
+        X = np.random.uniform(-3.,3.,(20,1))
+        Y = np.sin(X) + np.random.randn(20,1)*0.05
+        kernel = GPy.kern.RBF(input_dim=1, variance=1., lengthscale=1.)
+        m = GPy.models.GPRegression(X,Y,kernel)
+        fig = m.plot()
+        GPy.plotting.show(fig, filename='show fig test')
+
+
 def test_twod():
     np.random.seed(11111)
     import matplotlib