Matplotlib Legend Guide basic examples

Question

I am trying to understand how to use the legend() better, specifically how to use proxy artists. I find the Legend guide to be severely lacking. This post is somewhat simila

Answer 1

The Legend Guide was rewritten to be compatible with matplotlib version 1.4.0 or newer. Your version of matplotlib (1.2.1) is over two years old. Don't be surprised if everything shown in the docs does not work with such an old version.

If you upgrade your version, then using

plt.legend(handles=[red_patch,blue_line])

(as is shown in the Legend Guide) instead of

plt.legend([red_patch,blue_line])

yields