diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index cf0fb8f31f04..12f9e336680d 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -4976,7 +4976,7 @@ def _pcolorargs(funcname, *args, **kw):
         allmatch = kw.pop("allmatch", False)
 
         if len(args) == 1:
-            C = args[0]
+            C = np.asanyarray(args[0])
             numRows, numCols = C.shape
             if allmatch:
                 X, Y = np.meshgrid(np.arange(numCols), np.arange(numRows))
@@ -4986,7 +4986,7 @@ def _pcolorargs(funcname, *args, **kw):
             return X, Y, C
 
         if len(args) == 3:
-            X, Y, C = args
+            X, Y, C = [np.asanyarray(a) for a in args]
             numRows, numCols = C.shape
         else:
             raise TypeError(
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
index bc6168c62fd1..b6a4e79dc44f 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
@@ -738,6 +738,21 @@ def test_symlog2():
     ax.set_ylim(-0.1, 0.1)
 
 
+@cleanup
+def test_pcolorargs():
+    # Smoketest to catch issue found in gh:5205
+    x = [-1.5, -1.0, -0.5, 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5]
+    y = [-1.5, -1.25, -1.0, -0.75, -0.5, -0.25, 0,
+         0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5]
+    X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
+    Z = np.hypot(X, Y)
+
+    plt.pcolor(Z)
+    plt.pcolor(list(Z))
+    plt.pcolor(x, y, Z)
+    plt.pcolor(X, Y, list(Z))
+
+
 @image_comparison(baseline_images=['pcolormesh'], remove_text=True)
 def test_pcolormesh():
     n = 12