diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.2.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.2.rst
index 4f6274b9084da..c95f563a77708 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.2.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.2.rst
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ including other versions of pandas.
 Fixed regressions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 - Fixed regression in :meth:`Series.replace` raising ``RecursionError`` with numeric dtype and when specifying ``value=None`` (:issue:`45725`)
+- Fixed regression in :meth:`DataFrame.plot` preventing :class:`~matplotlib.colors.Colormap` instance
+  from being passed using the ``colormap`` argument if Matplotlib 3.6+ is used (:issue:`49374`)
 -
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/pandas/io/formats/style.py b/pandas/io/formats/style.py
index fb44082aa5b58..8f21823ddcd02 100644
--- a/pandas/io/formats/style.py
+++ b/pandas/io/formats/style.py
@@ -3610,7 +3610,7 @@ def _background_gradient(
             if cmap is None:
                 rgbas = mpl.colormaps[mpl.rcParams["image.cmap"]](norm(gmap))
             else:
-                rgbas = mpl.colormaps[cmap](norm(gmap))
+                rgbas = mpl.colormaps.get_cmap(cmap)(norm(gmap))
         else:
             rgbas = plt.cm.get_cmap(cmap)(norm(gmap))
 
diff --git a/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/core.py b/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/core.py
index 9bcb51a7b032a..8292ffd0425f5 100644
--- a/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/core.py
+++ b/pandas/plotting/_matplotlib/core.py
@@ -1231,7 +1231,7 @@ def _make_plot(self):
 
         if self.colormap is not None:
             if mpl_ge_3_6_0():
-                cmap = mpl.colormaps[self.colormap]
+                cmap = mpl.colormaps.get_cmap(self.colormap)
             else:
                 cmap = self.plt.cm.get_cmap(self.colormap)
         else:
@@ -1311,7 +1311,7 @@ def _make_plot(self) -> None:
         # pandas uses colormap, matplotlib uses cmap.
         cmap = self.colormap or "BuGn"
         if mpl_ge_3_6_0():
-            cmap = mpl.colormaps[cmap]
+            cmap = mpl.colormaps.get_cmap(cmap)
         else:
             cmap = self.plt.cm.get_cmap(cmap)
         cb = self.kwds.pop("colorbar", True)
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/formats/style/test_matplotlib.py b/pandas/tests/io/formats/style/test_matplotlib.py
index c5b05b4e0d0c1..f0c4152e3339b 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/formats/style/test_matplotlib.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/formats/style/test_matplotlib.py
@@ -288,3 +288,17 @@ def test_bar_color_raises(df):
     msg = "`color` and `cmap` cannot both be given"
     with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
         df.style.bar(color="something", cmap="something else").to_html()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "plot_method",
+    ["scatter", "hexbin"],
+)
+def test_pass_colormap_instance(df, plot_method):
+    # https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/49374
+    cmap = mpl.colors.ListedColormap([[1, 1, 1], [0, 0, 0]])
+    df["c"] = df.A + df.B
+    kwargs = dict(x="A", y="B", c="c", colormap=cmap)
+    if plot_method == "hexbin":
+        kwargs["C"] = kwargs.pop("c")
+    getattr(df.plot, plot_method)(**kwargs)