In this study the theoretical notion of ekphrasis is analyzed in three novels by Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999). Tropismes from 1939 is studied in the light of Ruth Webb’s analysis of ekphrasis as a rhetorical device used to persuade an audience in Antiquity. The study reveals several equivalents with the ancient notions of the rhetorical ekphrasis. In Entre la vie et la mort from 1968, we have found an expression of the tension described by Murray Krieger as fundamental to ekphrasis and consisting of the two opposing incentives of exhilaration and exasperation. Sarraute creates a constant textual oscillation between the two oppositional beliefs, and she leaves the question open were Krieger claims the incapacity of language. A tension continues to underlie the text in Ici from 1995. Audet and Marcotte (2012) define a tension between the one and the multiple expressed through the combination of narrative and poetic discourse. We have found an equivalent to this perspective in the theoretical framework elaborated by Tamar Yacobi, adding the concepts of narrative ekphrasis, the pictorial model and the generalized reference. The motivations and mechanisms of the generalized reference are compared to the discussion in Sarraute’s text. We find that Sarraute’s text adds several observations to the theory of Yacobi. Our conclusion is that the theoretical field of ekphrasis seems to be able to add a new dimension of observations when studying the work of Sarraute, but that more studies need to be done in order to find intersubjective affirmation considering the interpretative foundations of our method.