Representing nearly four decades of handiwork by Clem Labine , the founder of Old House Journal and now the editor of Period Homes , and his former wife , Claire , the house is an over-the-top shrine to the Aesthetic Movement , which flourished in England in the 1870 's and 80 's and made famous the artists Dante Rossetti and James McNeill Whistler , the designer William Morris and the playwright Oscar Wilde .