diff --git a/src/components/images/draw.js b/src/components/images/draw.js
index 8242e72f23f..10ad4ea5564 100644
--- a/src/components/images/draw.js
+++ b/src/components/images/draw.js
@@ -99,11 +99,15 @@ module.exports = function draw(gd) {
                 var dataURL = canvas.toDataURL('image/png');
 
                 thisImage.attr('xlink:href', dataURL);
+
+                // resolve promise in onload handler instead of on 'load' to support IE11
+                // see https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/issues/1685
+                // for more details
+                resolve();
             };
 
 
             thisImage.on('error', errorHandler);
-            thisImage.on('load', resolve);
 
             img.src = d.source;