diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinxcontrib-tikz/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinxcontrib-tikz/default.nix
index 44772172dffb..94799dc6a4b8 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinxcontrib-tikz/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinxcontrib-tikz/default.nix
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace sphinxcontrib/tikz.py \
-      --replace "config.latex_engine" "${texLive}/bin/pdflatex" \
+      --replace "config.latex_engine" "'${texLive}/bin/pdflatex'" \
       --replace "system(['pdf2svg'" "system(['${pdf2svg}/bin/pdf2svg'"
   '';
 
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   # no tests in package
   doCheck = false;
 
+  pythonImportsCheck = [ "sphinxcontrib.tikz" ];
+
   meta = with lib; {
     description = "TikZ extension for Sphinx";
     homepage = "https://bitbucket.org/philexander/tikz";