diff --git a/changelog.html b/changelog.html
index 0dbcac118bd14085ffcaf61e8f2a10293d4e9e8f..8c7f69a1d3f8e660d652efc126efd8a951f13252 100644
--- a/changelog.html
+++ b/changelog.html
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ Upcoming changes</a>
 <!-- Record your changes in the trunk here. -->
 <div id="trunk" style="display:none"><!--=TRUNK-BEGIN=-->
 <ul class=image>
+  <li class=bug>
+    Ungraceful handling of empty matrix project axes.
+    (<a href="https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-19135">issue 19135</a>)
   <li class=bug>
     A malformed JUnit result file should mark that test suite as a failure, but not interrupt archiving of other tests.
     (<a href="https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-19186">issue 19186</a>)
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Axis.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Axis.java
index c776f6ad044e3e8138c289b6fb27b2a2a66e5f31..faec4501e1d3696f0960e5e22d9c555ffd0b48ac 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Axis.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Axis.java
@@ -76,10 +76,11 @@ public class Axis extends AbstractDescribableImpl<Axis> implements Comparable<Ax
     public final List<String> values;
 
     public Axis(String name, List<String> values) {
+        if (values == null || values.isEmpty()) {
+            values = Collections.emptyList();
+        }
         this.name = name;
         this.values = new ArrayList<String>(values);
-        if(values.isEmpty())
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException(); // bug in the code
     }
 
     public Axis(String name, String... values) {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Layouter.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Layouter.java
index 941a38de108eea021ca3e1ab47a0843884215efd..051b8f6239166261f21adab3aacfa7a21a371169 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Layouter.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/matrix/Layouter.java
@@ -201,8 +201,11 @@ public abstract class Layouter<T> {
             buildMap(xp,x);
             buildMap(yp,y);
             buildMap(zp,z);
-            for (Axis a : trivial)
-                m.put(a.name,a.value(0));
+            for (Axis a : trivial) {
+                if (a.size() > 0) {
+                    m.put(a.name, a.value(0));
+                }
+            }
             return getT(new Combination(m));
         }