diff --git a/package/imagemagick/imagemagick.mk b/package/imagemagick/imagemagick.mk
index 624ff168ff..df1dbe86da 100644
--- a/package/imagemagick/imagemagick.mk
+++ b/package/imagemagick/imagemagick.mk
@@ -181,6 +181,9 @@ HOST_IMAGEMAGICK_CONF_OPTS = \
 	--with-png \
 	--with-zlib
 
+# uses clock_gettime, which was provided by librt in glibc < 2.17
+HOST_IMAGEMAGICK_CONF_ENV = LIBS="-lrt"
+
 HOST_IMAGEMAGICK_DEPENDENCIES = \
 	host-libjpeg \
 	host-libpng \