I usually do this:
var image = new Image();
image.onload = function () {
console.info("Image loaded !");
//do something...
}
image.onerror = function () {
console.error("Cannot load image");
//do something else...
}
image.src = "https://stackoverflow.com/images/blah/foo.jpg";
Remember that the loading is asynchronous so you have to continue the script inside the onload and onerror events.