 During this period Chatwin travelled extensively for his job and also for adventure . Travel offered him a relief from the British class system , which he found stifling . An admirer of Robert Byron and his book , The Road to <unk> , he travelled twice to Afghanistan . He also used these trips to visit markets and shops where he would buy antiques which he would resell at a profit in order to supplement his income from Sotheby 's . He became friends with artists and art collectors and dealers . One friend , Howard Hodgkin , painted Chatwin in The Japanese Screen ( 1962 ) . Chatwin said he was the " acid green smear on the left . " 
