diff --git a/Src/Newtonsoft.Json.Tests/Converters/XmlNodeConverterTest.cs b/Src/Newtonsoft.Json.Tests/Converters/XmlNodeConverterTest.cs
index 4d0936ec..3d092474 100644
--- a/Src/Newtonsoft.Json.Tests/Converters/XmlNodeConverterTest.cs
+++ b/Src/Newtonsoft.Json.Tests/Converters/XmlNodeConverterTest.cs
@@ -977,6 +977,23 @@ namespace Newtonsoft.Json.Tests.Converters
             return sw.ToString();
         }
 
+        public class Foo2
+        {
+            public XmlElement Bar { get; set; }
+        }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void SerializeAndDeserializeXmlElement()
+        {
+            Foo2 foo = new Foo2 { Bar = null };
+            string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(foo);
+
+            Assert.AreEqual(@"{""Bar"":null}", json);
+            Foo2 foo2 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Foo2>(json);
+
+            Assert.IsNull(foo2.Bar);
+        }
+
         [Test]
         public void SingleTextNode()
         {
diff --git a/Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Converters/XmlNodeConverter.cs b/Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Converters/XmlNodeConverter.cs
index 1edee00b..304709ad 100644
--- a/Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Converters/XmlNodeConverter.cs
+++ b/Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Converters/XmlNodeConverter.cs
@@ -1645,9 +1645,10 @@ namespace Newtonsoft.Json.Converters
             if (typeof(XmlNode).IsAssignableFrom(objectType))
             {
                 if (objectType != typeof(XmlDocument)
+                    && objectType != typeof(XmlElement)
                     && objectType != typeof(XmlNode))
                 {
-                    throw JsonSerializationException.Create(reader, "XmlNodeConverter only supports deserializing XmlDocuments");
+                    throw JsonSerializationException.Create(reader, "XmlNodeConverter only supports deserializing XmlDocument or XmlElement.");
                 }
 
                 XmlDocument d = new XmlDocument();
@@ -1685,6 +1686,12 @@ namespace Newtonsoft.Json.Converters
                 return element;
             }
 #endif
+#if HAVE_XML_DOCUMENT
+            if (objectType == typeof(XmlElement))
+            {
+                return document.DocumentElement.WrappedNode;
+            }
+#endif
 
             return document.WrappedNode;
         }