diff --git a/torchvision/utils.py b/torchvision/utils.py
index ea197d7386e..90657acee4f 100644
--- a/torchvision/utils.py
+++ b/torchvision/utils.py
@@ -180,6 +180,10 @@ def draw_bounding_boxes(
         raise ValueError("Pass individual images, not batches")
 
     ndarr = image.permute(1, 2, 0).numpy()
+    # allow single-channel-images
+    # shape: (1, H, W) with C = 1
+    if ndarr.shape[-1] == 1:
+        ndarr = np.tile(ndarr, (1, 1, 3))
     img_to_draw = Image.fromarray(ndarr)
 
     img_boxes = boxes.to(torch.int64).tolist()