diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qtagg.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qtagg.py
index 256e50a3d1c3..0fdea169a179 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qtagg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qtagg.py
@@ -2,15 +2,14 @@
 Render to qt from agg.
 """
 
-import ctypes
+import numpy as np
 
-from matplotlib.transforms import Bbox
-
-from .qt_compat import QT_API, QtCore, QtGui
+from .qt_compat import QtGui
 from .backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg
 from .backend_qt import _BackendQT, FigureCanvasQT
 from .backend_qt import (  # noqa: F401 # pylint: disable=W0611
     FigureManagerQT, NavigationToolbar2QT)
+from ..transforms import Bbox
 
 
 class FigureCanvasQTAgg(FigureCanvasAgg, FigureCanvasQT):
@@ -47,25 +46,19 @@ def paintEvent(self, event):
             right = left + width
             # create a buffer using the image bounding box
             bbox = Bbox([[left, bottom], [right, top]])
-            buf = memoryview(self.copy_from_bbox(bbox))
+            img = np.asarray(self.copy_from_bbox(bbox), dtype=np.uint8)
 
-            if QT_API == "PyQt6":
-                from PyQt6 import sip
-                ptr = int(sip.voidptr(buf))
-            else:
-                ptr = buf
+            # Clear the widget canvas, to avoid issues as seen in
+            # https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/13012
+            painter.eraseRect(rect)
 
-            painter.eraseRect(rect)  # clear the widget canvas
-            qimage = QtGui.QImage(ptr, buf.shape[1], buf.shape[0],
-                                  QtGui.QImage.Format.Format_RGBA8888)
+            qimage = QtGui.QImage(
+                img, img.shape[1], img.shape[0],
+                QtGui.QImage.Format.Format_RGBA8888,
+            )
             qimage.setDevicePixelRatio(self.device_pixel_ratio)
             # set origin using original QT coordinates
-            origin = QtCore.QPoint(rect.left(), rect.top())
-            painter.drawImage(origin, qimage)
-            # Adjust the buf reference count to work around a memory
-            # leak bug in QImage under PySide.
-            if QT_API == "PySide2" and QtCore.__version_info__ < (5, 12):
-                ctypes.c_long.from_address(id(buf)).value = 1
+            painter.drawImage(rect.topLeft(), qimage)
 
             self._draw_rect_callback(painter)
         finally:
diff --git a/src/_backend_agg_wrapper.cpp b/src/_backend_agg_wrapper.cpp
index eaf4bf6f5f9d..1f271a1aeaeb 100644
--- a/src/_backend_agg_wrapper.cpp
+++ b/src/_backend_agg_wrapper.cpp
@@ -472,6 +472,12 @@ static PyObject *PyRendererAgg_clear(PyRendererAgg *self, PyObject *args)
 
 static PyObject *PyRendererAgg_copy_from_bbox(PyRendererAgg *self, PyObject *args)
 {
+    // Note that whilst the copy_from_bbox call can technically return an image that
+    // is of a different rect than was requested, this is not used in the underlying
+    // backend. In the future, this copy_from_bbox will not return a PyBufferRegion,
+    // and instead simply return an image (the renderer interface may still expose a
+    // bbox in the response for convenience, but this doesn't need to be a special
+    // type at the C++ level).
     agg::rect_d bbox;
     BufferRegion *reg;
     PyObject *regobj;