diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
index 0f57bc604a36..aabc93e4b8ec 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -1025,7 +1025,7 @@ def _handle_resize(self, *args):
     def _end_redraw(self, evt):
         # Now that the redraw has happened, do the post draw flushing and
         # blit handling. Then re-enable all of the original events.
-        self._post_draw(None, self._blit)
+        self._post_draw(None, False)
         self.event_source.start()
         self._fig.canvas.mpl_disconnect(self._resize_id)
         self._resize_id = self._fig.canvas.mpl_connect('resize_event',
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4agg.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4agg.py
index d36991c84110..e9953e299a6b 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4agg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4agg.py
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ def __init__(self, figure):
         FigureCanvasQTAggBase.__init__(self, figure)
         FigureCanvasAgg.__init__(self, figure)
         self._drawRect = None
-        self.blitbox = None
+        self.blitbox = []
         self.setAttribute(QtCore.Qt.WA_OpaquePaintEvent)
 
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt5agg.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt5agg.py
index 5920ab09c7cf..81addae00d27 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt5agg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt5agg.py
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def paintEvent(self, e):
             print('FigureCanvasQtAgg.paintEvent: ', self,
                   self.get_width_height())
 
-        if self.blitbox is None:
+        if len(self.blitbox) == 0:
             # matplotlib is in rgba byte order.  QImage wants to put the bytes
             # into argb format and is in a 4 byte unsigned int.  Little endian
             # system is LSB first and expects the bytes in reverse order
@@ -123,31 +123,34 @@ def paintEvent(self, e):
             if refcnt != sys.getrefcount(stringBuffer):
                 _decref(stringBuffer)
         else:
-            bbox = self.blitbox
-            l, b, r, t = bbox.extents
-            w = int(r) - int(l)
-            h = int(t) - int(b)
-            t = int(b) + h
-            reg = self.copy_from_bbox(bbox)
-            stringBuffer = reg.to_string_argb()
-            qImage = QtGui.QImage(stringBuffer, w, h,
-                                  QtGui.QImage.Format_ARGB32)
-            # Adjust the stringBuffer reference count to work around a memory
-            # leak bug in QImage() under PySide on Python 3.x
-            if QT_API == 'PySide' and six.PY3:
-                ctypes.c_long.from_address(id(stringBuffer)).value = 1
-
-            pixmap = QtGui.QPixmap.fromImage(qImage)
             p = QtGui.QPainter(self)
-            p.drawPixmap(QtCore.QPoint(l, self.renderer.height-t), pixmap)
+
+            while len(self.blitbox):
+                bbox = self.blitbox.pop()
+                l, b, r, t = bbox.extents
+                w = int(r) - int(l)
+                h = int(t) - int(b)
+                t = int(b) + h
+                reg = self.copy_from_bbox(bbox)
+                stringBuffer = reg.to_string_argb()
+                qImage = QtGui.QImage(stringBuffer, w, h,
+                                      QtGui.QImage.Format_ARGB32)
+                # Adjust the stringBuffer reference count to work
+                # around a memory leak bug in QImage() under PySide on
+                # Python 3.x
+                if QT_API == 'PySide' and six.PY3:
+                    ctypes.c_long.from_address(id(stringBuffer)).value = 1
+
+                pixmap = QtGui.QPixmap.fromImage(qImage)
+                p.drawPixmap(QtCore.QPoint(l, self.renderer.height-t), pixmap)
 
             # draw the zoom rectangle to the QPainter
             if self._drawRect is not None:
                 p.setPen(QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.black, 1, QtCore.Qt.DotLine))
                 x, y, w, h = self._drawRect
                 p.drawRect(x, y, w, h)
+
             p.end()
-            self.blitbox = None
 
     def draw(self):
         """
@@ -190,7 +193,7 @@ def blit(self, bbox=None):
         if bbox is None and self.figure:
             bbox = self.figure.bbox
 
-        self.blitbox = bbox
+        self.blitbox.append(bbox)
         l, b, w, h = bbox.bounds
         t = b + h
         self.repaint(l, self.renderer.height-t, w, h)
@@ -218,7 +221,7 @@ def __init__(self, figure):
             print('FigureCanvasQtAgg: ', figure)
         super(FigureCanvasQTAgg, self).__init__(figure=figure)
         self._drawRect = None
-        self.blitbox = None
+        self.blitbox = []
         self.setAttribute(QtCore.Qt.WA_OpaquePaintEvent)