Matlab’s rendering engine can break under some remote desktop use cases, including X11 forwarding. There can also be issues when using Matlab plots locally if a problem arises with a GPU graphics driver.

Diagnose

Matlab rendererinfo() provides extensive details about the rendering backend. It can be invoked from the Matlab GUI

rendererinfo(gca)

or from the system Terminal

matlab -batch "rendererinfo(gca)"

Workaround

Although slow, software-based and feature-limited, the painters algorithm can be reliable if something outside Matlab is hindering graphics (local or remote).

figure
set(gcf,'renderermode','manual','renderer','painters')

confirm the Painters renderer is being used by:

rendererinfo(gca)

which should result in

GraphicsRenderer: ‘MathWorks Painters’

The Mathworks has detailed rendering troubleshooting.