diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/imagemagick/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/imagemagick/package.py
index 7c60470dfc6..1d22842fbd2 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/imagemagick/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/imagemagick/package.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ class Imagemagick(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('ghostscript')
     depends_on('ghostscript-fonts')
     depends_on('libsm')
+    depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')
 
     def configure_args(self):
         spec = self.spec