diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/default.nix
index 773e365889b3b..0fa2ed2bd398b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/default.nix
@@ -34,7 +34,8 @@ with pkgs;
         isPyPy = lib.hasInfix "pypy" interpreter;
 
         buildEnv = callPackage ./wrapper.nix { python = self; inherit (pythonPackages) requiredPythonModules; };
-        withPackages = import ./with-packages.nix { inherit buildEnv pythonPackages;};
+        withPackages = import ./with-packages.nix { inherit buildEnv pythonPackages; };
+
         pkgs = pythonPackages;
         interpreter = "${self}/bin/${executable}";
         inherit executable implementation libPrefix pythonVersion sitePackages;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix
index d14eb9cbb09dd..9e670caca5f4b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/default.nix
@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@ in rec {
       };
     } ./pip-install-hook.sh) {};
 
+  propagateWrapperArgsHook = callPackage ({ }:
+    makeSetupHook {
+      name = "propagate-wrapper-args";
+      deps = [ ];
+    } ./propagate-wrapper-args.sh) {};
+
   pytestCheckHook = callPackage ({ pytest }:
     makeSetupHook {
       name = "pytest-check-hook";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/propagate-wrapper-args.sh b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/propagate-wrapper-args.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..8f2a2662c264c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/hooks/propagate-wrapper-args.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Hook that propagates wrapper arguments up to the
+# python interpreter buildEnv environment.
+echo "Sourcing propagate-wrapper-args.sh"
+
+storeWrapperArgsHook() {
+    # Store the arguments for use by other derivations
+    # and the python interpreter derivation.
+    echo "Executing propagateWrapperArgsHook"
+
+    mkdir -p "$out/nix-support"
+    if [ ${#qtWrapperArgs[@]} -ne 0 ]; then
+        printf '%s\n' "${qtWrapperArgs[@]}" >> "$out/nix-support/make-wrapper-args"
+    fi
+    if [ ${#gappsWrapperArgs[@]} -ne 0 ]; then
+        printf '%s\n' "${gappsWrapperArgs[@]}" >> "$out/nix-support/make-wrapper-args"
+    fi
+    if [ ${#makeWrapperArgs[@]} -ne 0 ]; then
+        printf '%s\n' "${makeWrapperArgs[@]}" >> "$out/nix-support/make-wrapper-args"
+    fi
+}
+
+loadWrapperArgsHook() {
+    # Load the arguments from all the dependencies.
+    # Note: this hook *must* run after storeWrapperArgsHook to
+    # avoid an exponential duplication of the wrapper arguments.
+    for path in $propagatedBuildInputs "$@"; do
+        if [ -f "$path/nix-support/make-wrapper-args" ]; then
+            makeWrapperArgs+=$(cat "$path/nix-support/make-wrapper-args")
+        fi
+    done
+}
+
+postFixupHooks+=(storeWrapperArgsHook loadWrapperArgsHook)
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/mk-python-derivation.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/mk-python-derivation.nix
index df945c645a828..26c1810cb7e81 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/mk-python-derivation.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/mk-python-derivation.nix
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 , flitBuildHook
 , pipBuildHook
 , pipInstallHook
+, propagateWrapperArgsHook
 , pythonCatchConflictsHook
 , pythonImportsCheckHook
 , pythonNamespacesHook
@@ -113,6 +114,7 @@ let
       ensureNewerSourcesForZipFilesHook  # move to wheel installer (pip) or builder (setuptools, flit, ...)?
       pythonRecompileBytecodeHook  # Remove when solved https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/81441
       pythonRemoveTestsDirHook
+      propagateWrapperArgsHook
     ] ++ lib.optionals catchConflicts [
       setuptools pythonCatchConflictsHook
     ] ++ lib.optionals removeBinBytecode [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/wrapper.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/wrapper.nix
index dffad6b98f5e5..d3909abb1deb1 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/wrapper.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/python/wrapper.nix
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 # Create a python executable that knows about additional packages.
 let
   env = let
-    paths = requiredPythonModules (extraLibs ++ [ python ] ) ;
+    paths = requiredPythonModules (extraLibs ++ [ python ]);
     pythonPath = "${placeholder "out"}/${python.sitePackages}";
     pythonExecutable = "${placeholder "out"}/bin/${python.executable}";
   in buildEnv {
@@ -22,29 +22,40 @@ let
     inherit ignoreCollisions;
     extraOutputsToInstall = [ "out" ] ++ extraOutputsToInstall;
 
-    postBuild = ''
+    buildInputs = [ python.pkgs.propagateWrapperArgsHook ];
+
+    postBuild = with stdenv.lib; ''
       . "${makeWrapper}/nix-support/setup-hook"
 
+      # Load propagated wrapper arguments from each
+      # path in the environment.
+      loadWrapperArgsHook ${concatStringsSep " " paths}
+
       if [ -L "$out/bin" ]; then
           unlink "$out/bin"
       fi
       mkdir -p "$out/bin"
 
-      for path in ${stdenv.lib.concatStringsSep " " paths}; do
+      for path in ${concatStringsSep " " paths}; do
         if [ -d "$path/bin" ]; then
           cd "$path/bin"
           for prg in *; do
             if [ -f "$prg" ]; then
               rm -f "$out/bin/$prg"
               if [ -x "$prg" ]; then
-                makeWrapper "$path/bin/$prg" "$out/bin/$prg" --set NIX_PYTHONPREFIX "$out" --set NIX_PYTHONEXECUTABLE ${pythonExecutable} --set NIX_PYTHONPATH ${pythonPath} ${if permitUserSite then "" else ''--set PYTHONNOUSERSITE "true"''} ${stdenv.lib.concatStringsSep " " makeWrapperArgs}
+                makeWrapper "$path/bin/$prg" "$out/bin/$prg" \
+                  --set NIX_PYTHONPREFIX "$out" \
+                  --set NIX_PYTHONEXECUTABLE ${pythonExecutable} \
+                  --set NIX_PYTHONPATH \
+                    ${pythonPath} \
+                    ${optionalString (!permitUserSite) ''--set PYTHONNOUSERSITE "true"''} \
+                    ''${makeWrapperArgs[@]}
               fi
             fi
           done
         fi
       done
     '' + postBuild;
-
     inherit (python) meta;
 
     passthru = python.passthru // {
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix
index dd25860795baf..53c1a3403b5ae 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/2.nix
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 , freetype, libpng, pkgconfig, mock, pytz, pygobject3, gobject-introspection, functools32, subprocess32
 , fetchpatch
 , enableGhostscript ? false, ghostscript ? null, gtk3
-, enableGtk3 ? false, cairo
+, enableGtk3 ? false, cairo, wrapGAppsHook ? null
 # darwin has its own "MacOSX" backend
 , enableTk ? !stdenv.isDarwin, tcl ? null, tk ? null, tkinter ? null, libX11 ? null
-, enableQt ? false, pyqt4
+, enableQt ? false, pyqt4 ? null, wrapQtAppsHook ? null
 , Cocoa
 , pythonOlder
 }:
@@ -43,7 +43,9 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   buildInputs = [ which sphinx ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableGhostscript ghostscript
-    ++ stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin [ Cocoa ];
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin Cocoa
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableQt wrapQtAppsHook
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableGtk3 wrapGAppsHook;
 
   propagatedBuildInputs =
     [ cycler dateutil nose numpy pyparsing tornado freetype kiwisolver
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix
index 45f3173974674..e0f094fc4832c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/matplotlib/default.nix
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 , freetype, libpng, pkgconfig, mock, pytz, pygobject3, gobject-introspection
 , certifi, pillow
 , enableGhostscript ? true, ghostscript ? null, gtk3
-, enableGtk3 ? false, cairo
+, enableGtk3 ? false, cairo ? null, wrapGAppsHook ? null
 # darwin has its own "MacOSX" backend
 , enableTk ? !stdenv.isDarwin, tcl ? null, tk ? null, tkinter ? null, libX11 ? null
-, enableQt ? false, pyqt5 ? null
+, enableQt ? false, pyqt5 ? null, wrapQtAppsHook ? null
 , Cocoa
 , pythonOlder
 }:
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR = "/tmp";
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ]
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableQt wrapQtAppsHook
+    ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableGtk3 wrapGAppsHook;
 
   buildInputs = [ which sphinx ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optional enableGhostscript ghostscript
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index db0ef635e9a5d..c8ab2dac188d9 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ in {
     flitBuildHook
     pipBuildHook
     pipInstallHook
+    propagateWrapperArgsHook
     pytestCheckHook
     pythonCatchConflictsHook
     pythonImportsCheckHook
@@ -3542,6 +3543,7 @@ in {
     stdenv = if stdenv.isDarwin then pkgs.clangStdenv else pkgs.stdenv;
     inherit (pkgs.darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) Cocoa;
     inherit (pkgs) pkgconfig;
+    inherit (pkgs.qt5) wrapQtAppsHook;
   };
 
   matrix-client = callPackage ../development/python-modules/matrix-client { };