diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/figure.py b/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
index db45e04410e6..d5a8d08ec8ee 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
@@ -163,6 +163,38 @@ class _AxesStack(object):
     """Lightweight stack that tracks Axes in a Figure.
     """
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def __key_compare(k1, k2):
+        k1_args, k1_kwargs = k1
+        k2_args, k2_kwargs = k2
+
+        def np_safe_eq(left, right):
+            out = (left == right)
+            try:
+                out = bool(out)
+            except ValueError:
+                out = out.all()
+                try:
+                    out &= len(left) == len(right)
+                except TypeError:
+                    out = False
+            return out
+
+        for a, b in zip(k1_args, k2_args):
+            test = np_safe_eq(a, b)
+            if not test:
+                return False
+        if set(k1_kwargs) != set(k2_kwargs):
+            return False
+
+        for k in k1_kwargs:
+            a = k1_kwargs[k]
+            b = k2_kwargs[k]
+            test = np_safe_eq(a, b)
+            if not test:
+                return False
+        return True
+
     def __init__(self):
         # We maintain a list of (creation_index, key, axes) tuples.
         # We do not use an OrderedDict because 1. the keys may not be hashable
@@ -179,7 +211,10 @@ def as_list(self):
     def get(self, key):
         """Find the axes corresponding to a key; defaults to `None`.
         """
-        return next((ax for _, k, ax in self._items if k == key), None)
+        return next((ax
+                     for _, k, ax in self._items
+                     if self.__key_compare(k, key)),
+                    None)
 
     def current_key_axes(self):
         """Return the topmost `(key, axes)` pair, or `(None, None)` if empty.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py
index 5f2d3b1b2a82..d6df6fc78dd7 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py
@@ -319,3 +319,11 @@ def test_subplots_shareax_loglabels():
 
     for ax in ax_arr[:, 0]:
         assert 0 < len(ax.yaxis.get_ticklabels(which='both'))
+
+
+def test_axes_add_np_behavior():
+    ax1 = plt.axes(np.array([.1, .1, .8, .8]))
+    ax2 = plt.axes(np.array([.1, .1, .8, .8]))
+    # in the future this test will need to be changed to not assert
+    # that the axes are equal, but still check that this does not blowup.
+    assert ax1 is ax2