diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py b/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py
index 18a750c9f46d..bf87c9c43796 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backend_bases.py
@@ -1595,6 +1595,45 @@ def __init__(self, figure):
         self.toolbar = None  # NavigationToolbar2 will set me
         self._is_idle_drawing = False
 
+    def _repr_html_(self):
+        # Defer to IPython to handle html output if possible
+        if 'IPython' in sys.modules:
+            import IPython
+            ip = IPython.get_ipython()
+            # Check whether %matplotlib was run. Is there a better way?
+            ib_list = [c for c in ip.configurables 
+                       if 'InlineBackend' in type(c).__name__]
+            if ib_list:
+                return
+            
+        fmt = self.get_default_filetype()
+
+        kw = {
+            "format":fmt,
+            "facecolor":self.figure.get_facecolor(),
+            "edgecolor":self.figure.get_edgecolor(),
+            "dpi":self.figure.dpi,
+            "bbox_inches":self.figure.bbox_inches
+        }
+
+        bytes_io = io.BytesIO()
+        self.print_figure(bytes_io, **kw)
+        raw_bytes = bytes_io.getvalue()
+
+        from base64 import b64encode
+        data = b64encode(raw_bytes).decode()
+
+        if fmt == 'svg':
+            return raw_bytes.decode()
+        elif fmt == 'png':
+            return f'<img src="data:image/png;base64, {data}" />'
+        elif fmt == 'pdf':
+            w, h = self.figure.get_size_inches()
+            w, h = w * self.figure.dpi, h * self.figure.dpi
+            return f'<embed width="{w}" height="{h}" src="data:application/pdf;base64, {data}">'
+        elif fmt == 'jpg':
+            return f'<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64, {data}" />'
+
     @classmethod
     @functools.lru_cache()
     def _fix_ipython_backend2gui(cls):
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_webagg.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_webagg.py
index cd5ada8cd073..b7b2601c948a 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_webagg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_webagg.py
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ def run(self):
 class FigureCanvasWebAgg(core.FigureCanvasWebAggCore):
     _timer_cls = TimerTornado
 
+    def _repr_html_(self):
+        return ipython_inline_display(self.figure)
+
     def show(self):
         # show the figure window
         global show  # placates pyflakes: created by @_Backend.export below
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/figure.py b/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
index b4141c8668f7..ea624eb1638f 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
@@ -369,11 +369,7 @@ def __init__(self,
     # use it, for some reason.
 
     def _repr_html_(self):
-        # We can't use "isinstance" here, because then we'd end up importing
-        # webagg unconditionally.
-        if 'WebAgg' in type(self.canvas).__name__:
-            from matplotlib.backends import backend_webagg
-            return backend_webagg.ipython_inline_display(self)
+        return self.canvas._repr_html_()
 
     def show(self, warn=True):
         """