setCanvasBackground() had once been introduced for the designer, where you need to have a property.
But when looking at the implementation you will probably see, what goes wrong - maybe setting another canvas later.

Qt Code:
  1. void QwtPlot::setCanvasBackground( const QBrush &brush )
  2. {
  3. QPalette pal = canvas()->palette();
  4. pal.setBrush( QPalette::Window, brush );
  5.  
  6. canvas()->setPalette( pal );
  7. }
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Uwe