diff --git a/src/gui/painting/qcolorspace.cpp b/src/gui/painting/qcolorspace.cpp
index 4a1ed373f5d..926f2f687ad 100644
--- a/src/gui/painting/qcolorspace.cpp
+++ b/src/gui/painting/qcolorspace.cpp
@@ -364,6 +364,7 @@ QColorTransform QColorSpacePrivate::transformationToColorSpace(const QColorSpace
     QColorTransform combined;
     auto ptr = new QColorTransformPrivate;
     combined.d = ptr;
+    combined.d->ref.ref();
     ptr->colorSpaceIn = this;
     ptr->colorSpaceOut = out;
     ptr->colorMatrix = out->toXyz.inverted() * toXyz;