diff --git a/Tests/test_file_libtiff.py b/Tests/test_file_libtiff.py
index 63dc49cde..f0e2a50c2 100644
--- a/Tests/test_file_libtiff.py
+++ b/Tests/test_file_libtiff.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import io
 import logging
 import itertools
 import os
-import distutils.version
 
 from PIL import Image, TiffImagePlugin, TiffTags
 
@@ -241,11 +240,8 @@ class TestFileLibTiff(LibTiffTestCase):
             37004: b'custom tag value'
         }
 
-        libtiff_version = TiffImagePlugin._libtiff_version()
-
         libtiffs = [False]
-        if distutils.version.StrictVersion(libtiff_version) >= \
-           distutils.version.StrictVersion("4.0"):
+        if int(TiffImagePlugin._libtiff_version().split(".")[0]) >= 4:
             libtiffs.append(True)
 
         for libtiff in libtiffs:
diff --git a/src/PIL/TiffImagePlugin.py b/src/PIL/TiffImagePlugin.py
index a39591937..6387641e4 100644
--- a/src/PIL/TiffImagePlugin.py
+++ b/src/PIL/TiffImagePlugin.py
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ import os
 import struct
 import sys
 import warnings
-import distutils.version
 
 from .TiffTags import TYPES
 
@@ -1526,8 +1525,7 @@ def _save(im, fp, filename):
             if tag not in TiffTags.LIBTIFF_CORE:
                 if TiffTags.lookup(tag).type == TiffTags.UNDEFINED:
                     continue
-                if (distutils.version.StrictVersion(_libtiff_version()) <
-                    distutils.version.StrictVersion("4.0")) \
+                if int(_libtiff_version().split(".")[0]) < 4 \
                    or not (isinstance(value, (int, float, str, bytes)) or
                            (not py3 and isinstance(value, unicode))):  # noqa: F821
                     continue