A new version of matplotlib (0.86.1) is available, which works with numpy (see bug #119305). I changed the ebuild for matplotlib-0.85 a bit and changed the file matplotlib-0.85-no-autodetect.patch to make it work with setup.py from matplotlib-0.86.1. It seems to work with no problems. It will be nice to have this in portage, since this is the first version of matplotlib that supports numpy.
Created attachment 77446 [details] ebuild for matplotlib-0.86.1
Created attachment 77447 [details, diff] patch for setup.py
thanks for the updated patch and ebuild. added to portage.