Yes, something happened on the way to the 20th century, the camera became more and more common starting in the 19th century. Before the camera, the highest standard of art was what we now call photo realistic, but when that can be captured so easily by a camera, artists had to come up with other notions such as impressionism, abstraction, minimalism, and cubism that circumvent the camera.
We have a winner!!]
After the invention of the camera, people stopped buying photo realistic art. I they wanted something photo realistic, they get a photo for a fraction of the cost of a painting. It was invention, and the market that killed photo realism in art.
