This used to work, but my latest sip&pyqt snapshots crashes. import sys from PyQt4.QtCore import * from PyQt4.QtGui import * class Main(QGraphicsView): def __init__(self, parent=None): QGraphicsView.__init__(self, parent) pass if __name__=="__main__": a = QApplication(sys.argv) m= QGraphicsView() m.show() a.exec_()