How can I remove all legends from a matplotlib axes with multiple legends?

Question

Given a matplotlib plot with more than one legend, I would like to be able to remove all legends from the plot.

Here is a simple example code to produce a plot with two legends:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

# Plot some dummy data
x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y1 = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25]
y2 = [25, 16, 9, 4, 1]
ax.plot(x, y1, label='y = x^2')
ax.plot(x, y2, label='y = 25 - x^2')

# Add two legends
ax.legend()

handles, labels = ax.get_legend_handles_labels()

ax.get_legend().remove()

half_len = len(handles) // 2
leg1 = ax.legend(handles[:half_len], labels[:half_len], loc="upper left")
leg2 = ax.legend(handles[half_len:], labels[half_len:], loc="lower right")
ax.add_artist(leg1)
ax.add_artist(leg2)

We get a figure with two legends as expected:

Now, I want to remove these legends again. Here's what I tried and what does not work:

# The following solution removes only `leg1`, also in reverse order of calls:
leg2.remove()
leg1.remove()

# The following does not remove anything:
ax.get_legend().remove()

# The following throws an error (matplotlib/artist.py:239, ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list):
for c in ax.get_children():
    if isinstance(c, matplotlib.legend.Legend):
        c.remove()

I would prefer to have a generic solution like the last one, but for the moment, any solution would be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

When you call ax.legend it

• Creates a legend
• Adds the new legend to the axes
• Removes any existing legend

So after you called ax.legend twice, you have leg2 on the axes, because leg1 was automatically removed. Then you explicitly add both of them again with add_artist, so you have leg1 on there once, and leg2 on there twice.

If you just remove the line

ax.add_artist(leg2)

Then you will have each legend on the axes only once, and can just use the remove method on both of them.

Answer 2

@RuthC already explained why ax.legend() makes problem

but you can also use matplotlib.legend.Legend() instead of ax.legend()

half_len = len(handles) // 2

leg1 = matplotlib.legend.Legend(ax, handles=handles[:half_len], labels=labels[:half_len], loc="upper left")
leg2 = matplotlib.legend.Legend(ax, handles=handles[half_len:], labels=labels[half_len:], loc="lower right")

ax.add_artist(leg1)
ax.add_artist(leg2)

leg2.remove()
leg1.remove()