diff --git a/googlemaps/maps.py b/googlemaps/maps.py
index cc1a054e..76f817be 100644
--- a/googlemaps/maps.py
+++ b/googlemaps/maps.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 """Performs requests to the Google Maps Static API."""
 
+import googlemaps
 from googlemaps import convert
 
 
@@ -123,7 +124,7 @@ def __init__(self, points,
 
 
 def static_map(client, size,
-               center=None, zoom=None, scale=None, 
+               center=None, zoom=None, scale=None,
                format=None, maptype=None, language=None, region=None,
                markers=None, path=None, visible=None, style=None):
     """
@@ -244,4 +245,8 @@ def static_map(client, size,
         extract_body=lambda response: response,
         requests_kwargs={"stream": True},
     )
+
+    if response.status_code != 200:
+        raise googlemaps.exceptions.HTTPError(response.status_code)
+
     return response.iter_content()